Never Say Never
by AubreyMarie
Summary: Eli has no reason to believe in love. He has no influence. Clare's family is starting to fall apart. Every principle she had, is disappearing one by one. Could Eli change that?.Story is written from both Eli and Clare's POVs. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1: Introductions

**Title:** Never say never.

**Characters:** Eli Goldsworthy and Clare Edwards.

**Brief Summary:** Eli has no reason to believe in love. He has no influence. Clare's family is starting to fall apart. Every principle she had, is disappearing one by one. Could Eli change that? Not giving the story away in a brief summary =P .Story is written from both Eli and Clare's POVs. Enjoy. (=

**A/N: I will be uploading a new chapter daily. Reviews and feedback are amazing, and keep my inspired to keep writing! =) Enjoy Chapter 1!**

**Eli's POV. **

Dammit. The first day of school and I can't even make it out the door without hearing someone yell, along with something, or someone, breaking. I practically run down the stairs in my black, long sleeved shirt, under my signature blazer and of course my black skinny jeans. I already hear my dad arguing with his hooker from last night. Ha. Always the same every Monday morning: Dad gets with a hooker the night before, and the hooker always wants to have some type of relationship with my dad in the morning. Pathetic. But, hey, I shouldn't judge my dad. I'll probably be like that one day. Never been in love. More than likely never will.

Oh, who am I kidding. I'm never going to experience love, because it doesn't exist. It's all a silly mind game.

My parents got married while my mom was pregnant with me, and divorced when I was 12 years old. 12 years of marriage. Not bad, although I should say five years of an actual marriage. Five years after they got married, is when my mom started cheating on my dad, and when my dad became an alcoholic. I learned to take care of myself, with no help of any siblings, since I have none. When they finally split, it didn't make my life any better. I use to have to go back and forth between my mom's and my dad's house, but last year my mom took off. Haven't seen her since. I've missed her, yes. But I've already cried enough tears about it. Now, I just live with my dad. Pure hell. I can't wait until I can move out when I'm 18. I don't see why my dad bothers to keep me around here; punching bags are cheaper.

I walk out the door, and get into my beloved car, Morty. Now, if "love" really did exist, it's between me and my hearse. I don't know what I would do without him. It's the same hearse that drove my grandmother to her funeral two years ago. She was probably the only person on this Earth that I cared for most, and that cared for me. This car is the piece I have left of her. Morty breaks down at least once a week, but I can't help but feel I get a little closer every time I repair him. Wow, I'm thinking about the love I share with my car. I'm a freak.

I pull up to the school parking lot, and park under the space that is shadowed from a tree. I get out, and start walking up to my new school, Degrassi. Sounds like a type of grass remover, if you ask me.

I go to my first class of the day: Algebra 2. Boring, and confusing. 1 +1 = 2. Why couldn't we just leave it at that?

Second class: World history. People did something cool, and died. Move on.

Third class: Art. Why make a complex, hard to understand drawing, when you can write something with a subtle message? Not my style.

Fourth class: Lunch. I eat by myself at the table in the far corner of the cafeteria. It's not like people would want to eat with me, anyway.

Fifth class: Biology. I'm just waiting until we get to dissect a frog. That'll be exciting.

And my last class: Advanced English. A whole class about a language we already know. And I thought America couldn't be any more disappointing. But, it does give me a chance to express myself, through writing and poetry. I walk into the English class. I sit at the seat in the far right corner, where I get a good view of the outdoors from the window. That'll make a nice distraction. The bell rings, and some red-haired chick with pretty - real pretty - eyes stumbles through the door quickly, as if she were just being chased by a murderer. "Sorry I'm late." she says, her voice shaking, sounding as if she were just crying. Oh for the love of God, just sit down, and stop making a scene. She takes the seat right in front of me. As Ms. Dawes, our teacher, starts to lecture us on the rules that we have heard every period earlier, I get lost in the scent of the red-head's hair. Cocoa butter? Mmm. Another nice distraction.

"So, Eli, what's rule number three?" the teacher unexpectedly calls on me. I quickly shift my attention over to her, and think of something quick.

"The third rule of the list of rules for English class." I said, with a smirk. The class broke out in chuckles, as the teacher gave me a glare. I winked at her, and her cheeks went through shades of red as she read aloud the rest of the rules.

The first girl I hit on at Degrassi is my English teacher. Nice, Eli. Nice.

"Okay, since this is Advanced English, you will be receiving your first assignment today, due Friday. I'll be putting you in pairs of two. Don't complain, or I'll make the assignment due Thursday. Comprende?"

"I thought this was English class." I mumble. The red-head overhears me, and giggles. Ms. Dawes turns to her.

"Detention, Ms. Edwards." The red-head's mouth drops.

"I'm getting detention for reacting to something funny?" She questions.

"Well, what were you reacting to?" Ms. Dawes asks. Oh no.

"The kid behind me said something comical." Oh hell no.

"Ok, then you both can laugh during detention after school, and probably get started on your English assignment as well. Clare, you and Eli are partners." Damn. First day of school, and I have detention. With my English partner, of all people. Great.

The bell rings, and I stay where I am, as does Clare. Ms. Dawes leaves, and an old fart walks in and sits in the chair. "NO TALKING. STAY IN YOUR SEATS!" he yells, as if we were miles away. His head then falls onto the desk, with a loud 'thump.'

"You don't think he's dead, do you?" Clare asks, concern written all over her face.

"I'm not sure. Why don't you hand me that yard stick over there and I'll poke him with it to find out." I scoff. She turns her head towards me, and glares.

Her eyes are beautiful. They're like two crystal oceans sitting next to each other. I think I can stare at th- wait, what the hell am I saying? They're eyeballs, Eli. Get a hold of yourself.

"What do you want?" She snaps quietly. I didn't realize I was staring into her eyes this whole time.

"You're the one that's turned around and looking at me. What do _you_ want?" I snarled, in a hushed tone. She turns around quickly, and stares out the window. Her eyes could've been mistaken for glitter, as they twinkled with the sunlight beaming at them. But then I realized they were twinkling so much because she had tears in her eyes. Did I upset her? I couldn't be the reason for her being sad... Right?

"Are you okay?" I ask, sincerely. Most of the time, I could give two shits less if someone was sad or not. But I felt this weird type of caring, towards her. I haven't even known her a whole day!

"I will be. It's nothing to do with you, don't worry about it." She replied. Now, I'm going to worry about it. There has to be some way to cheer her up, or something. I can't just sit here for the rest of the hour watching her cry.

"Hey, how about we get out of here and have some fun?" She turns her head again, her eyebrows giving away a stern look.

"This is detention. I don't want to get into any more trouble as it is."

"The guy is either dead, or taking a long nap. I'm sure we will be fine." I reply, giving her half a laugh. She looks into my eyes for at least 5 seconds, before she picks up her book bag off the ground, and makes her way to the door. My eyes follow her. She turns, and looks at me.

"Well... You coming?" She asks, with a smile. That was the first time I've really seen her smile. She had such a genuine, beautiful smile... Oh my damn. What am I, Clare Edwards' number one admirer? I exchange a smile with her, and hop up from my desk, and walked out the door with Clare. This should be interesting.


	2. Chapter 2: Skipping & Cloud Watching

**A/N: Wow! Thanks so much for the awesome reviews! Glad you all are enjoying the story(= Here's chapter 2! **

**Clare's POV. **

This is something I never thought I would ever do in my life: be in the passenger seat of a hearse. Scratch that: be in the passenger seat of a hearse, while skipping detention. I look out the window, to see a beautiful scenery. A nice sidewalk, short, green grass contrasting with the bright colored flowers, and the sun overlooking it all as it slowly started to descend. My eyes widened.

"It looks even better when you're _outside_ the car." Eli scoffed, as I rolled my eyes and stepped out of the car.

"How did you find this place?" I wondered. He seemed like the type of guy that would hang at a graveyard.

"My mom used to take me here. It was the only place that relaxed her, and relaxed me, from everything. I come here almost every day after school."

I looked up into his eyes when he finished. Holy, how did I not notice those emeralds before? The sun lit them up like a light; or maybe, it was the place that did that.

"So, why doesn't your mom take you here anymore?" Please don't say she's dead. I'll feel like a total idiot.

"She left last year." Forget feeling like an idiot. I feel like an ass- I mean, butt.

"Wow… I'm sorry, Eli."

"It's not your fault. It doesn't make a difference. She was gone more than half the time while she was here, anyway."

"I know what that's like." I said, referring to my dad. He's always at 'work' now. I barely even get to see him anymore.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"My dad. He's always 'working'."

"That's always the start. Then comes the small arguments, the bigger arguments, the full blown out fighting, and then the drinking, and then it all snowballs out of control. But that's just my experience. Your parents are probably a lot different than mine."

I literally felt my heart sink, hearing that. What has this boy been through? I sit at the bench a couple of feet away, and he sits next to me.

"My parents are both strong Christians, and have been married for about ten years now. They always seemed happy with each other, until recently."

"Okay. Well, my parents only got married because my dad knocked up my mom, and they were never happy with each other. So, they're different." He ended, with a half laugh. I chuckled, although I didn't want to. Did he not realize how messed up that was?

"They've only been arguing, although my mom likes to call it 'disagreeing'. But, I have my volunteering at the hospital to distract me. I love working there, getting to help people."

"That's a good distraction. I normally get distracted by the wrong things: Drugs, alcohol, sleeping around with people, etc." My mouth dropped.

"Oh, and let's not forget joking around with people… I'm totally kidding, Clare." He started laughing, and it was contagious. He completely fooled me.

"I really thought you were serious!" I exclaimed. He would make a good actor.

"That was the point, Sherlock Holmes." He scoffed, with a smirk. I playfully glared at him, as he did the same. "So, what do you really do for a distraction?"

"Listen to my music, take Morty – my car – out for a ride, and write poetry and such. Nothing spectacular like hospital volunteering." He replied, attaching a smile. His smile was beautiful, and refreshing, considering I barely saw him smile.

"The writing poetry thing sounds interesting. I've always wanted to get into poetry, but I've never been good at it. I'm pretty decent at writing stories, though."

"I've heard." He replied. Oh crap, what exactly has he heard?

"Um…Wha-"  
"Don't get your panties in a bunch. I haven't read your stories or really heard much about them, only that they're brilliant." I smiled at that.

"But, I do plan on reading them in the future." He smiled. I frowned, making him smile even more, exposing his white teeth. Just, whoa.

"Oh, and cloud-watching soothes me." He added, making my heart flutter.

"I like cloud-watching, too." I said, smiling. We have something in common.

"Ok, then why don't we do that right now, since it's pretty impossible not to." He proposed, getting up from the bench, and laying on the ground. He looked up at me, still sitting on the bench.

"Aren't you going to join me?"

"I don't want to get my shirt dirty…" I said, embarrassed. He laughed, and took off his blazer, and laid it on the space next to him.

"Will your shirt stain from a blazer?"

We exchanged playful glares, as I lay next to him. This felt almost too perfect. The cool, gentle wind easily hitting my face, watching the clouds slowly go by in shades of blues and pinks and oranges, and being next to Eli- wait, what? I don't feel for Eli like that… I don't think, at least.

Time passed by, and I couldn't help but close my eyes. I wasn't even aware that I had fallen asleep, until Eli started shaking my shoulder hastily.

"Clare! Clare, wake up, it's almost ten!" He exclaimed. I shot up from the ground and looked at my phone to check the time. 9:52pm. Crap, I was supposed to be home by seven! Eli and I ran over to his car, and he floored it. We drove to my house, and we ran out of the car. Wait, why was he running too?

"Shouldn't you be running to _your_ house?" I questioned.

"It would be rude of me not to walk a pretty lady up to her door." I smiled, and couldn't help but blush, at that. I opened the door to my house, at bad timing. I heard a vase break in the kitchen, and then yelling. I doubt they even realized I wasn't home yet. I sighed in embarrassment, that Eli had to hear it too. My eyes began to water, and I ran up the stairs. I heard my front door close, and footsteps behind me. Was he following me?

I finally made it to my room, and began to burst out in warm tears. Through them, I barely saw Eli closing my door as he walked over to me and began to hold me in his arms. He held me tightly, and rubbed my back in a gentle manner as I cried into his chest openly. We probably stayed like that for the next five minutes, until my crying had faded.

"Shhh, it's going to be ok, Clare." He soothed. But even he knew that it wasn't. I parted from him, and walked over to my window, and looked out. Eli followed me, and wrapped his arms around me, and placed his head on my shoulder. For a second, it felt surreal- this is what you see most lovers do in movies. But, at the moment, I really didn't care. It was comfortable.

"I could stay the night, if you don't want to be alone." He offered. I felt a smile approach my face.

"I'd love that. Thank you, for everything." I really did need to thank him. He made today amazing.

"No problem. I'm just going to go home and pack some pajamas and a toothbrush and crap like that." He said, as he began to open my window.

"Are you crazy? This is the second story!"

"Yes, and I know." He smirked, and I smiled. He went down the tree. I felt slightly empty. I had spent my whole day with Eli, and now he's gone. I know he'll be back, but it's just a weird feeling. A 'missing' type of feeling. I miss him, and he's only been gone for not even a whole minute! What has Eli done to me?


	3. Chapter 3: Sleepovers & Chick Flicks

**A/N: The reviews never fail to inspire me(= Thank you so much! Here's a chapter filled with Eclare fluff ;) Enjoy! **

**Eli's POV. **

Wow. Today was amazing. From opening up to Clare about my family life, to the cloud watching. Perfection. And now, I'm about to have my first sleepover. I never had many friends to have sleepovers with, so this will be a new experience for me.

I opened the door of my house, and was surprised to hear everything quiet. I walked upstairs, and packed my things, and walked back downstairs. It was still a weird type of quiet. I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water before I leave, to find my dad surrounded by empty bottles of beer and Jack Daniels.

"What the hell are you doing home so late?" he yelled, stumbling up from the chair and taking small steps closer to me. Please don't hit me. Not tonight. Please, please don't hit me.

"I was working on an assignment after school today with my friend... Could I sleep over there? We are a little less than halfway done, and it's due soon." That wasn't even much different from the truth.

"What's this friends' name?" Damn.

"Clare Edwa-"

"You want to sleepover at a _girls'_ house?" He asked, his voice calmer. I'm confused, then again me and him never really discussed me sleeping over at a girls' house.

"Um… Yeah."

"Nice! I thought you'd end up being a virgin forever!" He started laughing, as he held up a hand for a high five, and his booze breath going up my nose. The smell was disgusting.

"I have no intention of having sex with her. She's just a good friend, dad."

"That's how they all start out, Elijah: Friends, then _good_ friends, then friends with benefits, and then lovers. And then they find someone that can screw them better than you can, and leave you." He slurred, his voice growing softer as he took another chug of Jack. I could tell he was referring to my mom. I actually felt a little sympathy for him at times like this.

"She has enough problems right now, and us sleeping together would just make her life ten times worse, not that I'm interested in sleeping with her."

"Whatever. Take this, just in case." My dad said, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a condom. He handed it to me.

"I don't need this." I protested.

"Just keep it! I don't want you to end up having a mistake like me and your mother did!" He yelled. I put the condom in my jacket pocket, just to make him happy. I felt a part of me break inside. He sat back where he was sitting, and continued to drink. I felt tears evolving in my eyes, and decided it was time to go.

On the drive to Clare's, his words kept repeating in my brain like a broken record. _I don't want you to end up having a mistake like me and your mother did! _I mean, out of all the things my dad has said to me, I never wanted to hear that I was a mistake. Whatever, I guess he's right. Who am I to say he's wrong?

I pulled up in Clare's driveway, and got out of the car. I climbed up the tree again, and started hitting her window softly. About 5 seconds later, she opened the window, and then walked away. I climbed into her room, and then dropped my book bag on the ground before closing the window.

"It's chilly outsi-" I stopped myself, when I saw that she was crying on the bed. And to think that my heart couldn't rip anymore than it already had.

"Clare, what's wrong?" I asked softly as I sat down next to her on the bed.

"I-It's my d-dad…. He's c-che.. cheati-" She broke into tears before she could finish the sentence, but I knew what she was trying to say. I wrapped my arms around her, and held her tightly as she cried into my chest. I held her and rubbed her gently, the exact same way I had earlier. It was a good idea to sleep over, she needed someone to be there for her.

"Clare, it's all going to be fine. I know it doesn't seem like it is, but it gets worse before it gets better. And it seems like it's gotten to the worse, so the only thing left is for it to get better, right?" I whispered slowly. I felt her nod her head, before she parted from my chest. I wiped a tear away from her cheek, and then rubbed her arm soothingly.

"Eli," Clare let a sob escape before continuing, "I don't even know how to t-thank you for being here for me."

"You don't have to thank me. It's called being a good friend, which you need." Clare smiled, and I felt my heart being stitched and warmed. It's amazing what her smile can do.

"Can we watch some TV or something?"

"Of course." I replied, almost before she was even done asking. I don't even really like TV that much, but she doesn't have to know that yet. I took off my jacket, and threw it across the room to where my book bag was. I saw something fall out of it on the way there. I don't remember putting anything in my pocket?

"What's that?" Clare asked, as she got up from the bed. She walked over and picked it up, and I saw her face go from calm, to shock. Wait, oh no. The condom.

"Is this why you wanted to sleep over?" Clare almost yelled. Oh hell no. I stood up, and walked toward her slowly.

"Clare, I know this looks really, really, bad. But I can expla-"

"You don't have to." She stopped me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Huh?

"What do you mean?"

She looked into my eyes for a couple of seconds, before her warm, soft lips pressed two kisses down my neck. She removed her jacket, and threw it on the floor, revealing a purple tank-top. I couldn't do this; this was wrong.

"Clare, we can't." I said, holding her hand.

"But, why? It was your intention, anyway. People just use each other for screwing, right? That's how it seems to be. Who needs abstinence anymore?" She said, finishing softly, as she began to move her hand up my shirt. I moved her hand away, and took a couple of steps back.  
"Clare, no," I said sternly, as I moved toward her again, and held her hands in mine, "this was not my intention. My dad gave it to me, thinking that was why I was staying the night here. Abstinence is important to you, and God. People don't just use each other for sex. Love exists, and it wants you to wait until you're with the right person, at the right time. Few people wait for that, which is why it may seem like it doesn't exist, but it does. Love exists if you let it."

She nodded her head, and started to cry again, softly. I hugged her, and held her like I did. But wait- Did I just say everything I thought I just said? I would have never said that two days ago. She made me believe this. She's the reason I believe in love… Am I in love with her? Wow… And I've only known her what, a couple days? No, I'm not in love with her… Or am I? I really don't know, but at this moment, all I know is that I care for her more than I've cared for anything else. I'm also realizing that I'm not like my dad after all. My dad would've slept with her without even second guessing himself. I know better. I would never hurt Clare, in any way.

"Eli, you're amazing." She whispered.

"Tell me something I don't know." I smirked, as we parted. She laughed, and then I felt a grin appear on my face quicker than you could blink.

"So, TV?" I asked, kicking off my shoes and jumping onto the bed. Her pillows smelled like her hair. I'm going to have sweet, sweet dreams. She smiled, and then layed next to me. We got comfortable under the covers, and then turned on the TV, and started watching the movie that was on- _Titanic._

"Oh God, a chick flick? Do you have a gun around here that I can shoot myself with?" I questioned, looking at her seriously. She laughed, and it became difficult to keep a straight face.

"Oh come on Eli, I love this movie. It's so romantic, and has some comedy here and there."

I faked a cough, "Chick flick!" and then faked a cough again. Clare playfully glared at me, and I just smiled at her.

We turned our heads to the TV, and some dude was drawing something. He was drawing… a naked chick? What a pervert. Wait…

"WHAT THE HELL!" I couldn't help but yell, when the screen went to the naked chick lying on the couch. "Is this a romantic comedy, or a porno?"

Clare bursted out laughing, and then replied "Eli, it's called brief nudity."

"No, it's called… I don't even know what the hell to call it! I call it a dude that doesn't know the difference between painting a fruit bowl, and a naked girl." Clare just continued laughing, as the pervert continued painting her. Ewwww.

The movie went on, and on. And then it went to the scene where Jack – I caught onto his name – started descending into the water below… Frozen. I started tearing up. I looked over at Clare, to make sure she was ok, and she was sleeping. She looked absolutely beautiful sleeping. If I got to see her sleeping every night before I went to bed, I would sleep like a baby. I turned back to the TV, and watched until the movie was over, and then turned it off to think.

That was real love, between Rose and Jack. Rose remembered him for the rest of her life. And they only knew each other what- a week? And they were in love.

I smiled to myself, and then looked at Clare, and tucked the hair that was in her face behind her ear before I snuggled up under the covers.

"I love you, Clare." I whispered, before disappearing into the dreams I was looking forward to having, with the sweet scent of Cocoa Butter.

**Next chapter will be posted tomorrow! And let me just tell you now: It's a long one. =D **


	4. Chapter 4: Notes & Tears

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews(= I won't be updating for the next few days, due to Disney World =D ! Haha. Enjoy the chapter! I love reviews! **

**Clare's POV. **

I woke up to my alarm clock and its annoying, consistent beeping. After my eyes got use to the light, I saw a piece of paper on the pillow next to me.

_Good-morning Clare. I didn't bring my school stuff,_

_So I had to go home early so I would be able to_

_Make it to school on time. Sorry I left before you_

_Could wake up to my beautiful face. =( See ya at school._

_Love, Eli. _

"Love, Eli." He made me smile at "Good-morning Clare," but that just made my day. I felt for Eli as a good friend, but it's nice to be told by someone they love you, even if it's brief. I put the note in my drawer, not wanting to throw it away, and got up from the bed. I got dressed for school, wearing a blue tank top under a jean jacket/dress, and curled my hair, leaving it down. I slipped on my shoes, grabbed my book bag, and made my way downstairs. My mom was waiting for me at the door.

"Clare, come on, let's go! I have a meeting this morning!"

"But mom, I haven't even eaten breakfast."

"I don't care right now; I have a place to be! Get in the car!" She began to yell. Oh well, I'll just get an apple or something from one of the vending machines before first period, since it seems like I'll be early. We left the house, got in the car, and left to Degrassi.

When she dropped me off, I made my way straight to the vending machine. I was starving. I stood in front of the vending machine, and searched my pocket for a dollar. Crap. Nothing. I guess I'll starve until lunch. I turned, to run into a tall, strong, body. A body that also smelled like booze. I backed away, into the vending machine, to see a new face. He smiled at me, and gave me a dollar.

"Thanks. I'll pay you back next time I see you."

"You could pay me back now by telling me your name?" Ha. Wow. Well, it's cheaper than a dollar.

"Clare. Yours?"

"Fitz." He takes another step closer, making me quite uncomfortable being between him and the vending machine.

"How about me and you have a little privacy time this morning?" He said, his face coming closer to mine. I try to move away, but he grabs my arms, and holds me hostile.

"Let me go!" I shout, trying to fight him off of me, but he was so strong. He smashed me against the vending machine, hurting my back. I fought off tears as I still tried to get away.

In a few seconds, he is dragged off of me by – KC? Where did he come from? Oh well, that doesn't matter. At least he got Fitz off of me.

"Leave while it's still an option." KC says through gritted teeth. Fitz looks from him, then to me, and then walks away with a sick smile. I turn to KC.

"Thanks…" I say, feeling awkward.

"No problem… So, how have you been? I've seen you hanging around that one guy… The one with the hearse?"

"He has a name; Eli." I say, matter-of-factly. Oh no. Don't try to lecture me.

"Yeah… I just wanted to say that I'm happy for you, Clare. You're a great girl, and deserve someone better than me. I've seen the way Eli makes you smile, and laugh, and I'm hap-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa: Eli and I are just _friends_, KC." I stop him, although it was nice to be told he was happy for me. He smiled.

"Sure…" he cooed, as he started to walk away.

"What do you mean by 'sure'?" I question, stopping him.

"Well, whether or not you deny liking him, he's totally into you. He looks at you like you're the only girl in the room. And you're the only person at Degrassi I've seen him talk to." I felt my cheeks start to go red, and I hoped KC didn't notice.

"Clare Edwards, are you blushing? And because of a guy you supposedly are 'just friends' with?" KC scoffs with a smile. The bell rings for first period, and I smile and shake my head as I begin to walk to class. Wow, talking about a guy I _might_ like with my ex-boyfriend. I'm glad he's not the jealous type. But, then again: _He_ broke up with _me_. For someone _better_. And that is exactly why I _can't_ like Eli: It's just asking for another heartbreak. He'll eventually find someone better, and move on.

School went by dreadfully slow. I was honestly looking forward to last period the most. Eli always made it fun. The bell finally rang for sixth period, and I was practically jogging to the class, before Alli stopped me.

"Hello Ms. Edwards, I'm hall monitor Alli. What's your excuse for going over the hall speed limit to class?"

"I just don't want to be late…" I lied.

"Uh-huh… Could it have something to do with that emo kid?"

"What? Who are you talking about?"

"Um… Jedi? I think his name is?" I frown.

"His name is Eli. And he's not 'that emo kid'. And no, I'm not rushing to class because of him." Alli rolled her eyes, and begins to walk away.

"Sure, Clare. Just remember: he looks like he's bad news." She disappeared in the crowd of students, as I walked the rest of the way to my class. Wow! What nerve! As if she had a right to judge! She's goo goo ga ga over a player! Whatever.

I walk into the classroom, with nearly everyone almost there, and sit at my desk. The bell rings, and there's no sign of Eli. Actually, I haven't seen him all day. Maybe he's just late.

The class discussion begins about grammar. Yawn. After minutes and minutes of trying to avoid looking at the clock, I look. The class is almost thirty minutes over with! Eli isn't coming today, is he? I sigh silently, and look out the window. I stare outside, and ignore the class until the bell rings. Time for hospital volunteering. That'll hopefully get my mind off this horrible day.

I walk into the hospital, and go straight to the front desk to get my binder full of patients I have to visit and help. First patient on the list: Room 112, minor stroke. I went to the room, and gave the kind man a few cups of water, and shared some conversation with him about his life. I always love having those kinds of talks with patients- the ones where they tell you about their life story.

After closing our conversation so he could get more rest, I go to the next patient on the list. Room 224, brutal injuries. With a cup of water ready in my hand, I open the door, and drop it. The sight in front of me left me in shock for at least a whole minute.

Eli was lying in that patient bed, sleeping. He looked as if he had just done jump rope inside a tornado. His forehead had a nasty cut, and was bleeding lightly. His left eye was badly bruise, and his cheeks were bruised a dark purple with minor cuts. I didn't even want to see what the rest of his body looked like. My throat started to get that 'clogged' feeling, as I managed to walk closer to his bed. I was trying my hardest not to cry, until tears started uncontrollably streaming down my face. I sat in the chair next to Eli's bed, and held his hand in mine. I used my other hand to rub his head gently. I saw his eyes shut a little tighter, before opening them slowly, and then – when I think he realized it was me sitting there – his eyes opened wide.

"Cl-lare what are you doing h-here?" He said, his throat sounding raspy.

"I-I volunteer here, re-remember?" I said, though my throat was giving out. I cleared it the best I could before speaking again.

"What happened to you?"

He looked away from me, and blankly stared at the floor.

"I tripped going down the stai-"

"NO!" I shouted, tears uncontrollably going down my face as I stood up, the chair falling behind me. "You are _NOT_ going to lie to me!" I yelled louder, sounding like a mad-woman. But I didn't care. I was not going to have him lie to me, when we have built trust. He needed to know that he can trust me.

I was surprised when I saw tears develop in Eli's eyes. Everyone has feelings – But I've never seen Eli cry.

"Why do you _CARE?_ Why?" He yelled back, shocking me. I tried not to flinch.

"I just want to help you, Eli." I say, my voice soft. I couldn't yell anymore.

"_Screw_ your help!" He started to yell, as I flinched again. "I don't need _ANYBODY'S_ help! Telling you about my problems aren't going to make them go away!" he took a long breath, and then continued, louder this time. "You. Can't. _SAVE_ ME. JUST GET _OUT!_" When he finished, I could barely see his eyes through my tears I was trying to hold – but I saw that they were extremely dark. Not the light, emerald eyes I was so use to. Not being able to hold it anymore, I broke out in tears, and started to leave the room, whispering "I'm sorry" over and over again. I opened the door, and almost left until he started speaking again. Softly, and calmly this time, although I could barely hear him through his sobs.

"Clare please wait," He started, crying softly as I closed the door and walked back over to him.

"What?" I spat coldly. He just told me to leave; now he wants me to stay? He cleared his throat, and continued speaking.

"You don't deserve to be yelled at." He took a long pause, "I would never want to yell at anyone for trying to help me, especially you of all people. You mean so much to me, and I care for you more than I thought I had the ability to care for anyone else in this world. Please, p-please forgive me… Look, whenever my dad would beat on my mom, she would run upstairs crying. I would follow her, and try to help her. I didn't know how to help her, but I would try hugging her and asking her what happened. Just give her an ear to listen to her, ya know? ... She never wanted my help. She would end up beating me almost as bad as my dad beat her, and then kick me out of her room. Clare, she use to hurt me for trying to help her." He paused again, to let out a sob before continuing. "I'm so, so sorry for yelling at you when you wanted to help me. I wouldn't want to do that to you. Never you, Clare, never." He finished, whispering "sorry" repeatedly. I kissed his head tenderly, as I intertwined our fingers and held hands with him.

"Scoot." I told him playfully. He smiled and scooted over, as I lied next to him on the small bed. We laid there in silence; hand in hand and my head on his for about ten minutes until he spoke.

"Clare, you're the only person that matters to me anymore. I don't want to ever hurt you, or push you away. I'm sorry."

"If you say sorry one more time, you're going to walk out of this hospital in worse condition than you were when you walked in." He gave me a pretend worried look, before smiling and getting his head comfortable on my shoulder.

"So, if you don't mind me asking: What happened?" I asked. Eli looked at me, his emerald eyes soft and light again, before responding.

"I walked in on my dad making out with some girl when I opened the bathroom door this morning. The girl saw me, looked back at him, shook her head, and left the house. He started yelling at me, I didn't even know the situation. And then he pushed me down the stairs, and just hit me… Over, and over, and…" He looked and sounded as if he was replaying the whole thing over again in his head. I put my finger on his lips to quiet him, as he began to cry again. His face dug into my shoulder, and he wept quietly; like how a child does after they have had a nightmare. I rubbed the back of his head with one hand, the other hand still holding his hand.

"You're okay now, Eli… You don't have to go back there… You can stay at my house. You're safe with me." When his crying faded away after a few more minutes, he looked up into my eyes.

"Could I really stay with you?" He asked, his voice sounding hopeful and pleading. I nodded at him, not being able to say no with his eyes going into full 'puppy-dog' mode. He smiled so big it almost looked painful, given his condition, and then looked down at our hands. I was worried whether or not he'd be okay that I held his hand. Then, he gently picked up my hand, and kissed it. It was as if his soft lips surged love up through my entire arm when he did that. He pulled away, and then looked at me once more, before resting his head on my shoulder again. I'm going to be staying with this patient for quite a while.


	5. Chapter 5: Interruptions & Yells

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, and for being patient guys! Here's the next chapter. Sorry if it's short; This chapter is more of a filler. I promise the next chapter will be longer! =)**

**Eli's POV. **

Clare and I layed still together for probably the next half hour, before I started to make conversation.

"So… how dreadful was school without me?" I ask, smirking. She rolls those blue eyes I love so much, before answering my question, with a question.

"Could you be more smug?"

"Absolutely!" I replied enthusiastically. She laughed, making me smile.

"School was pretty good." Aw, I was hoping she would miss me.

"You're going to lie to someone who is in the hospital?" I asked, hoping that was not her real answer.

"Ok, ok… My day sucked without you." She said, laughing.

"That sounds better." I cooed, before looking at her to see her rolling her eyes again. I wasn't that annoying, was I?

It was quiet again for a couple of minutes, before her soft hand began to stroke my cheek. I slightly winced in pain, and she quickly moved her hand away.

"I'm sorry…" she said, looking as if had just accidently hit me in the face or something.

"It's fine. I'll heal in no time." She looked deep into my eyes for what felt like hours, and then looked to the floor before speaking again.

"Does your dad hit you on a regular basis?" I sigh, before answering honestly.

"Every day. Some days aren't as bad as others. He aims for my stomach though, so people can't see. I will forever swim with a shirt." I half laughed, although she didn't even crack a smile.

"Clare, it's not like he does it without reason. I can be an ass sometimes."

"Your dad has no right to hit you, no matter how much of a butt you can be." I couldn't help but laugh a little, at her replacement for the word ass.

"I can take the hitting. I don't really care." I lied.

"Well I do. And you sure seemed to care an hour ago." She said, referring to me breaking down. I sighed. She knew me too well.

"Well it's not like I can do anything about it."

"Did you have memory loss or something? I told you that you could live with me." I smile, remembering. _And_ at the thought of living with Clare.

"I could really live with you?" I asked in disbelief.

"Of course. You need to be away from that monster you call your dad." I nod. I look into her eyes, and I hope she didn't feel me get goose bumps. The sunlight from the window was beaming at her eyes, like they were in the classroom. I felt like telling her I loved her, right at that moment.

"Clare, there's something I need to tell you."

"Well, what better place to tell me than at the hospital." She smirked. I'm rubbing off on her.

"Well… I've really enjoyed spending all this time with you. You're smart, beautiful, fierce, caring, and just everything I could've dreamt a friend to be. You're amazing, Clare. And," I pause, sitting up a little, feeling my heart race. "I lo-" And before I could even finish those last two words, there walks in Papa Edwards.

"Clare, where were you? It's almost 7:30. I was waiting outside to pick you up for about 30 minutes now. Come on, let's go."

"I rather walk home than go anywhere with you." Clare said, her voice sounding the coldest I've ever heard it. She glared at him, and he sighed.

"Stop being a drama queen, and get in the car." Shut the hell up, asshole. I had half the nerve to start something, but I restrained myself.

"Drama queen? Is it overdramatic to not want to be near someone who might be diseased?" Clare spat, her voice getting louder with every word. Clare's dad faked a confused look.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I know about you screwing other women. A _lot _of other women." She said, her voice growing lower and colder. I didn't know that there were _multiple_ women involved. Wow. Maybe he ran into my dad at whatever place he went to?

"Clare, list-"

"HOW COULD YOU?" She yelled, tears brewing in her eyes. I squeezed her hand gently, trying to calm her. She pulled her hand away from mine and stood up, moving closer to her dad.

"You are nothing but a _REPULSIVE_ douche bag!" She yelled. My eye brows automatically rose, as did her dad's. We both were surprised. "You better not say one word to me the whole ride home." She said defiantly. He nodded, and stepped out the door. Clare walked over to me, and ran her fingers through my hair.

"You were saying something?"

"Yeah… I… I love that Ms. Dawes partnered us as English partners. You're a great friend, Clare. Thanks for being here for me." She smiled, and then gave me a hug.

"Anytime, Eli. Will you be coming over tonight?"

"Of course." I chimed. She smiled at me again, before leaving. When the door closed, I sighed. I couldn't tell her I loved her after _that_. The timing just wasn't right anymore. Maybe it was fate; Maybe God is telling me to wait a little longer. I can do that.

I sank into the covers, trying to get comfortable. I missed Clare being right there. She felt so warm, and I felt warm just being within her presence.

At least I'll get to see her again tonight. I thought about the possibilities that could happen tonight; movies, popcorn, maybe even a pillow fight. I've always wanted one of those. And as I continued to think up the possibilities, I drifted asleep.


	6. Chapter 6: Slaps & Confessions

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! Here's the next chapter! It's earlier than usual, due to the last one being so short. And it's pretty long, if I do say so myself. (= Enjoy! **

**Clare's POV. **

This car ride home felt extremely longer than all the other times we have rode home from the hospital to our house. My eyes stayed looking out the window, while my dad kept his eyes on the road. It had been quiet for at least ten minutes, and we were halfway home. It better stay quiet.

"Clare…" He started. Ugh.

"I told you not to talk to me."

"Clare, I'm your father. And you will respect me. Now listen." I sighed, and didn't move my eyes from the window.

"What I did was a mistake. Things just got complicated between your mother and me, and I just got relief from… you know…"

"Screwing other women?" I scoffed, through gritted teeth.

"You know what: sure. I got relief from screwing other women. I don't know how I got relief from it, but I just did. I regret it, Clare. I was selfish, and I was reckless and stupid. I ignored the fact that I had a family, and did whatever the hell I wanted to do. I'm sorr-"

"To _hell_ with your apologies! You don't mean it! If mom didn't find some sluts' underwear in the bed, you probably wouldn't even be here! You would probably have a skank on your lap right now!"

"That's not true…" He said, his voice cracking. He was about to cry. I didn't care.

"Yes it is. And what's also true is that I can never look at you with the same amount of respect and love that I once did." As soon as I said that, we were already parked in the driveway. He looked into my eyes, his eyes filled with regret and sadness. I ignored the nerve to cry, and left the car. I walked into the house, and went straight to my room. I layed on the bed, and let out my tears there.

**Eli's POV. **

I walked into my house, and went straight upstairs to start packing everything. I was moving into Clare's house tonight. I was going to be safe. For once in my life, I can think that word. _Safe_. It felt pretty damn good. My dad wouldn't be home for about two hours, so I had to hurry.

I first packed all my clothes; being most of the little I had. I then packed my 'Ocean Surf' deodorant/spray, along with my hairbrush, toothbrush, and things like that. Then my jewelry, iPod, shoes, cell phone, and laptop. That seemed to be everything. I looked at the time: It was about an hour later. I guess I'll take a quick shower, and then head over to Clare's house.

**Clare's POV. **

I walked downstairs on the way to the kitchen, until I heard the door knock. I smile, hoping it was Eli. But my smile slightly dropped when I saw it was only KC.

"Hey Clare. Thought we could hang?" He asked, a smile glued onto his face. He was subtly giving me puppy dog eyes; I couldn't say no.

"Sure." I faked a smile, stepping out the door and walking past him to the steps by the doorway. I sat on the last step, and he sat next to me; ironically where we broke up.

"Looks like sunset is going to look nice tonight." He said, his head turning to me. I kept my eyes to the sky.

"Yeah…" I agreed. It was peaceful, silent. He and I exchanged small talk, until he began an actual conversation.

"So how are you and Eli?" He asked, nudging my arm. I sighed, smiling.

"He's a good friend. And _only_ a friend." I lied. Ever since he kissed my hand… I knew my feelings were getting harder to control. But I _couldn't_ like him. I _can't_ let myself be hurt again.

"How are you and Jenna?" I asked, changing the subject, although I didn't really want to hear about him and that slut.

"We're… broken up." He said with a half laugh. I gave him a confused look.

"Why?"

"I broke up with her… I wasn't being fair to her." My confused look remained on my face.

"Clare, can I ask you something?"

"Sure" I said, hoping it wouldn't turn into a Dr. Phil moment.

"Do you count liking someone else while you're with someone, cheating?" I couldn't help but feel a little sting.

"Well, from experience of my last boyfriend doing that: Yes. It's cheating." I said coldly.

"I'm sorry… And well, I guess I did that to Jenna too." I couldn't help but smile a little. It's what the bitch deserved.

"Nice… Oops- I mean, that's horrible." I said, as we both laughed.

"So who do you like now, KC?" I asked, curious to who the next sucker could be. He'll just do the same to her, then the next girl, and the next girl…

"You." He said plainly, looking at me. I felt my heart bounce in surprise, but not happiness. Wow. After so long of wanting him back, I didn't want him anymore. The time I have been waiting for, and I don't care. I gave him a blank stare, and he moved his face inches from mine. I froze. He was about to press his lips to mine, until I snapped my head away, and stood up. He stood up too.

"What's wrong?" He questioned. I couldn't help but slightly laugh at his stupidity.

"You had me once, and you let me go. I don't plan on getting hurt again."

"I wouldn't hurt you again." Bullshit. "Clare, you and I belong together."

"No, because my heart already belongs to someone else." He gave me a puzzling look, which in a few seconds, straightened out to an angry one.

"Who? That emo freak?" He shouted. I felt anger roar through me as I slapped him across the face.

"No. By Eli Goldsworthy. He has everything you wish you had: smarts, sincerity, sensitivity, and my love. I love him, KC." I said, to his surprise, and mine. "He may be annoying as hell. And when I say annoying, I mean _annoying_. And he can be weird. And he may like stupid music. But those things just make me love him more. Thank you, for cheating on me with Jenna. I would've never found someone as amazing as him." I said. KC shook his head, and walked away. I rolled me eyes, and felt like playing my iPod to the loudest setting. I remembered I had left my iPod in the car. I walked over to the passenger side of the car, and to my surprise, Eli was standing there.

**Eli's POV. **

I decided to walk to Clare's house. If I left my car in the driveway, it would probably take a couple of weeks for my dad to realize I was gone.

I walked, and walked, and walked. Good thing I only had to carry two bags; One being a big rolling suitcase, which contained my clothing and such. And the other being my book bag, containing my school stuff.

I walked up to Clare's driveway, to see her talking with KC on the steps. I felt a sting of jealousy run through my veins, before I walked behind the car and eavesdropped.

"So who do you like now, KC?" I heard her ask. Oh no.

"You." I heard him say. Oh hell no. I felt my heart break. I looked over the car, and saw his face moving closer to hers. She wasn't moving away! I felt my eyes start to get heavy, until she snapped her head away. HA! I couldn't help but smile a little. She stood up, and walked away from him. He followed her like a dog.

"What's wrong?" He asked. She didn't want to kiss you, dumbass. Damn. Get with the program.

"You had me once, and you let me go. I don't plan on getting hurt again." Go Clare! This is better than cable. I loved seeing my red-head so fiery.

"I wouldn't hurt you again." Bullshit. "Clare, you and I belong together." Wow. I almost felt sorry for this idiot.

"No, because my heart already belongs to someone else." I saw his face go from puzzled to angry, as mine went from confused to sad. It was probably that Wesley turtle-looking boy.

"Who? That emo freak?" He shouted. Me? I saw her slap him across the face. Hahahaha. That's gonna leave a bruise.

"No. By Eli Goldsworthy." My heart lifted up to above cloud nine.

"He has everything you wish you had: smarts, sincerity, sensitivity, and my love. I love him, KC." S-She loves me? She thinks I'm smart, sensitive, and sincere? She loves me?

"He may be annoying as hell. And when I say annoying, I mean _annoying_. And he can be weird. And he may like stupid music," She thinks I'm annoying? Really annoying? And weird? And thinks my music is STUPID! She wouldn't know good taste in music if it was crammed down her ears!

"But those things just make me love him more. Thank you, for cheating on me with Jenna. I would've never found someone as amazing as him." She thought my music was stupid! But she loves me… Clare. Edwards. Loves. _Me_. I felt my cheeks get warm and run through shades of red. KC shook his head, and walked away. I saw Clare roll her eyes, and then start heading over to where I was standing. I might as well surprise her.

Her jaw dropped when she saw me standing there. I smirked.

"How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to see you reject KC's kiss with a slap." I chimed, taking a step towards her. Her cheeks went cherry red.

"So… You heard… Everything?"

"You really think I'm _that_ annoying?" I asked, trying to embarrass her. Her cheeks got even redder- if that was even possible.

"Eli… I-I don't want this to ruin our friendship. I'm so sorry… It's just a stupid crush, no big deal. It'll go away, I promise." She started rambling. I pushed my finger to her mouth gently, and then took another step toward her.

"You said you _love_ me. Are love and a stupid crush the same thing?" I looked deep into her blue eyes. It was almost impossible not to get lost in them.

"No… Eli, I really like you, a lot. I don't think I should call it love, though." I nodded me head.

"I understand… And, I like you a lot too." I said, as I let my hand tuck a loose hair behind her ear. She smiled at me.

"So… Does this mean we get official?" She asked, biting her lip. I let a smile spread across my face. Not a smirk; a _smile_.

"If you want it to be. I would love the title of being "Clare's boyfriend."" I said, making us both laugh. She hugged me, and I wrapped my arms around her strongly.

"I want it to be, Eli." She said into my shoulder. We stood there hugging for what seemed like a year.

"So, are you going to get settled in your new home?" She asked, breaking away our embrace. I picked up the handle of my suitcase, and threw my book bag over my shoulder.

"Sounds good to me." We then went inside her house, and began to unpack my things in her room.

Our first night being together as a couple, and of me living here. Boy oh boy.

**Sounds like things are getting goooooood (; **

**Reviews are my inspiration! So leave 'em! =P **

**Next chapter to be up tomorrow. Goodnight!**


	7. Chapter 7: Bras & Scary Movies

**A/N: Sorry I took freaking FOREVER to update! I've been busy making some videos lately on YouTube. My account over there is AubreyMarieB3 if you want to check 'em out(= Enjoy the new chapter! Eclare-ness=) And who's excited for tomorrow and Thursday? =D!**

**Eli's POV. **

When we finally got up the stairs and into her room with my stuff, we put the book bag in the corner and the big suitcase on her bed.

"So, when are we gonna break it to your folks that your boyfriend is living here?" I smirked, as I began to unpack the clothes in my suitcase, Clare sat next to the suitcase before replying.

"Not anytime soon." I froze with a few shirts in my hand, and gave her a look.

"So, I'm _secretly_ staying here? What a way to win over your parents." I laughed.

"They're never going to know. They're never even home most of the time, anyway." She replied, before sighing. I gave her a sympathetic look, before putting the rest of my clothes in the empty dresser drawer she cleared for me. Well, almost empty drawer. What was this in the corn- Oh. My. Damn.

"Saint Clare, I am appalled!" I faked a gasp, as I held up her black lace bra. Her jaw dropped, as she tried to grab it from me.

"Give it back, Eli! NOW!" She started yelling. I held it up as high as my arm would go, and she kept trying to grab it. She then stopped, crossed her arms, and glared.

"All you have to say is please." I said. Her glare remained, as I had a smile glued to my face.

"_Please_, give me my bra back." She said emotionlessly. I handed it to her.

"I didn't think I'd hear you say that until our wedding." I scoffed. She gave me a look, and turned around, thinking I didn't see her face go red.

"Why do you have that, anyway?" I wondered.

"No purpose. I bought it when I was trying to feel better after KC and I broke up. It was part of a silly idea to get him back.

**A/N: This actually did happen in the show (Clare buying a black lace bra, and thinking about using it to get KC back.) Just letting you guys know I'm not writing Clare out of character here=) Anyway…**

I felt a small sting of jealousy.

"Wow… What was your idea? Did you do it?"

"I don't even remember. I was emotionally messed up at the time, and I didn't go through whatever I was thinking."

"That's good. You would've been the next Jenna." She gave me a confused look.

"KC knocked her up." Her face went pale, and she gasped.

"Really! When did you hear this?"

"It's all over FaceRange. I checked the computer before I left the house. In her status, she was whining about how the father of her baby left her." I scoffed, as I kicked over the suitcase and sat next to her on the bed.

"I don't think she was "whining." That's serious, Eli." I rolled my eyes.

"He'll go back to her. You know he will. Once he finds out she's preggers, he'll have no other choice."

"He can leave her, Eli. He can make her go through this alone."

"Not if he wants his whole reputation ruined. If he does this, she'll just tell the whole school how he left her to deal with this alone. I know this stuff, Clare." I saw her face get paler.

"How?" I think I gave her the wrong idea.

"I'm a virgin, Clare. There isn't any mini Eli's running around out there. I find the gossip that goes around the school entertaining. There have been at least three pregnancies at my last school, and each one turned out the same: baby daddy leaves, knocked up mama cries to the school about it, baby daddy comes back in order to repair his reputation." She started laughing.

"I thought you found this stuff serious?" I laughed.

"Well when you put it like that, it's hard not to laugh." She continued laughing. I smiled. God bless my sense of humor, being able to make her laugh. Her laugh is the real music to my ears.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes, until she began to talk.

"Hey, do you want to watch some movies?" I nodded, and kicked off my shoes before getting comfortable in the bed. Falling asleep during or after a movie was practically tradition for us. She got comfortable, and then clicked on the TV. We were laying a little closer to each other than we normally did. Not so close that our arms were touching, but not too far that we both were at complete different sides of the bed.

We looked to see what movie it was, and it was "Scream." Oh, how I loathed scary movies. I'm no wimp, but scary movies were my weakness.

"Do you want to watch this?" She asked. I faked a half laugh.

"Of course, I love this movie." I lied. I couldn't let her know I was scared of it, if she seemed to be fine. If she found out about my vulnerability for scary movies, I knew she would _never_ let that go.

The movie was at the part where the scream guy was killing someone. I was shaking, and I began to get really paranoid. There was a random scream in the movie, and I completely flinched with fear. Clare screamed when that happened, and I looked over to her to see that she was crying and shaking. I was shocked, and turned off the TV immediately.

"W-What's wrong? Are you ok? I thought you liked these types of movies?" She took a deep breath, and then sat up on the bed, her back against the head board.

"I don't… I didn't want to seem like a woos in front of you." We shared eye contact for a few seconds, before I laughed.

"What's so funny?" She asked, her voice slightly cracking. I sat up on the bed with my back against the head board like she was, and took her hand and held it.

"I am just as much as a woos as you are when it comes to scary movies." She began to laugh. Ugh.

"Are you kidding? The great Eli Goldsworthy is scared of movies like this?" I sighed.

"Aw… You don't have to try to impress me."

"Who says I'm trying to impress you?" I replied. She gave me a look, and I gave her one right back.

"Ok, so at least we don't have to worry about watching a movie like that ever again." She said, letting go of my hand and sinking under the covers. She layed on her side so that she was facing me, as I did the same.

"Yeah… I think we're done with movies for the night." I chuckled.

"Yup…" She said, as she looked disappointed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing… I just feel scared now… But I'll be okay." She replied. With that, I got up from the bed, and turned on the light. She looked at me as if I were crazy.

"What are you doing?" She asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

"I'm going to search this room and make sure there aren't any scream guys or boogie men, so you know you're safe." I told her, as I got on my knees and looked under the bed.

"Nothing here." I said, as I walked over to her closet. I opened it bravely, and looked through it a little.

"Nothing there" I said, and I went over to the window, and looked out.

"And nothing but the stars and the moon and some trees." I walked back over to the bed, and got comfortable lying down on my side so that I was facing her. She had a smile glued to her face as she looked at me.

"What?" I smirked, as she took my hand and held it.

"Thank you… I've always wanted my mom or dad to search my room when I was little, but they would always tell me that there was nothing to be scared of. They would never check for me, no matter how much I begged. And I was always too scared to look for myself… It sounds silly, I know, but it just made me feel a whole lot better." I smiled.

"Well I didn't only do it for you. I needed to make sure nothing was going to kill me in the middle of the night, either." She chuckled, as she moved herself so that she was lying on her stomach. I layed on my back, and after a few minutes, she rested her head on my chest as I wrapped my arms around her. It was almost too perfect. I felt safe, the moonlight was shining through the window, and I had the person that meant everything to me in my arms. I smiled to myself before I closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: You know the drill! Reviews mean as much to me as Clare means to Eli! XD! Possible update tonight… Maybe… If not, definitely tomorrow. =) **


	8. Chapter 8: Cereal & Poetry

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! (=**

**PLEASE READ: Okay, I'm fast forwarding this story a bit. It's not ending anytime soon, but I want to pick up the pace here, ya know! So I'm fast-forwarding to where it's 5 months later. Eli still lives with Clare. They are still together and happy. No kiss yet, but lots of fluff and flirting and things like that. They're taking it slow=) **

**Ok, here's Chapter 8!**

**Clare's POV. **

I woke up to a note on the pillow next to me. The usual. Eli never stayed until morning. He always took a morning walk, or sat by the trees out in the front of the house, so that if my parents were to walk into my room in the morning he wouldn't get caught. I always wondered what it would be like to wake up to him there.

Well, at least he never failed to write me a sweet note every morning. I've kept every single note, ever since the first one he wrote me when we were just friends. I let my eyes adjust to the light for a moment, before sitting up on the bed and reading the note.

_Good morning, Clare. _

_I'm sorry to inform you that…_

_I ate the last chocolate chip waffle._

_It was delicious. =) _

_Don't worry, there's cereal left… Cheerios. _

Ugh. He knows how I hate cheerios.

_I know how you hate Cheerios._

_So I went to the store and bought you_

_Frosted Flakes. Your favorite. (= _

_See ya at school. _

_Love, Eli. _

I smiled, and then put the note in my drawer, along with all of the other notes he has written me. I get out of bed, and get ready for school. I put on some dark blue jeans, and wear a blue flowery shirt. I slip on some sneakers, and then curl my hair. I add a touch of make-up, and then swing my book bag over my shoulder before going downstairs to make sure he wasn't lying about the Frosted Flakes.

He wasn't. It was there.

I got some cereal, and then ate it quickly before walking to school. Neither one of my parents were home, both away for "business matters." Despite my dad cheating, they're still trying to work things out. Why can't they just see that it's not working? I thought about this on my walk to school. When I got there, I felt all the frustration of my parents go away when I saw Eli talking to some guy on the steps. Who was he? I approached them, and they both turned to me.

"Speak of the devil." Eli said, smiling. Oh no. What were they saying about me?

"Wow, Eli. She's not ugly like you said she was!" Eli's mouth dropped, and I felt a smile go across my face. This kid was trying to get him in trouble. I played along.

"Oh really?" I said, in a cold tone.

"Clare! He's lying! I never said you were ugly!" Eli exclaimed. I was trying my hardest not to break out in laughter, but the other guy broke.

"We're just messing with ya man." The kid said. I then started laughing, as Eli's face calmed down into a smile.

"So, what _were_ you saying about me?" I asked.

"I was just telling Adam about how I live with the most beautiful girl in Toronto." He said, as he pressed a kiss to my head. I felt my cheeks get warm, and looked to the ground, and then at Adam. He smiled at me, and then stuck his hand out.

"I'm Adam."

"Clare." I said, as I shook his hand with a smile. The three of us were talking about the cafeteria food – the worst – before KC approached me. He and I slowly became friends again, but Eli didn't know. I wasn't keeping it from him, I just never thought of it as something important to tell him.

"Hey, Clare. I was wondering: do you want to hang later?" He asked. I looked from him to Eli, who was holding a stern look in his eyes.

"I-I don't think so." I said, almost stuttering. KC looked from me, to Eli, back to me, and then nodded before walking away.

"What the hell was that about?" Eli asked. I sighed.

"He's just a friend, Eli. Nothing more."

"Uh-huh. Sure." He said, before swinging his book bag over his shoulder. He started to walk away, but I stopped him.

"I'm just going to go pick some grass… I'll talk to you two love birds later." Adam said, walking away.

"Eli, there's nothing to be jealous of."

"Who says I'm jealous?" He said, not looking at me. He was a terrible liar.

"Eli, it's written all over your face." He sighed. "You have nothing to be jealous of."

"Prove it." He retorted.

"I will tonight." I said. The bell rang for first period almost as if it was on cue, and I walked away from him to class.

**Eli's POV.**

"I will tonight." She said. The bell rang, and she went off to class.

What's that suppose to mean? What's going to happen tonight?

"BOOYA!" I heard someone yell from behind me. I turned around, to see Adam.

"Booya? Really?" I laughed, as he and I began to walk to class. We had first period - Algebra 2- together.

"You're going to get some from that Clare chick!" Adam exclaimed. I rolled my eyes.

"She's not like that, Adam. She's waiting until marriage. And where would you get that from, anyway?"

"Marriage shmarriage. She so wants you." I rolled me eyes, again.

"Oh Eli, I'll show you tonight." He said in a seductive girl voice, mimicking Clare.

"Shut up." I laughed, as we walked to our seats. First period went by slow, as did second and third. Then, lunch finally came.

Clare and I always sat down at the picnic table by the trees for lunch. It was always peaceful, somewhat quiet, and relaxing. I walked up to the picnic table to see her sitting there eating a PB&J sandwich, and a bag of chips. I sat down next to her, and took an apple out of my pocket. She looked at me as if I just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

"Where the heck did you get an apple?"

"I brought it to school." I said, before taking a bite. Mmm. Apples.

"Allllllrighty…" She said, eating her sandwich. We ate in silence for a few minutes, before Adam came to our table almost screaming of happiness.

"ELI! ELI! OH MY DAMN!" He squealed. I gave him a confused look, and then he threw a comic book at me. IT WAS THE NEW ONE!

"Oh- OH MY GOD! This wasn't supposed to come out until next month!" I exclaimed.

"My brother gave it to me on the way to lunch! I don't know how the hell he got it, but that doesn't even matter. He got it!" He and I did our usual fist-bump, before he sat down next to me. We began to look through the comic book... This was epic!

"Can I see?" I heard Clare asked.

"Um…" Adam and I both said. Clare took the book from us smiling, and then her facial expression was _priceless_ when she turned the page.

"Are those boobs, or freaking cantaloupes in these girls' shirts?" She exclaimed. Her face was seriously disgusted as she kept turning the pages.

"Their ingénues!" I defended them.

"Their floozies!" She said, as she threw the comic back to us. Adam and I ignored her, as we continued reading. Although I wasn't looking at her at all, I felt her glaring into the back of my head, as if she were mentally trying to burn me.

"Would you like to read with us?" I laughed, as I turned back to Clare. She turned the other way, and continued eating. I looked to Adam, and then gave him a look that told him I needed to talk to her. Adam nodded, and took the comic and walked away. I scooted over closer to Clare, and kissed the back of her head. She turned her head around.

"Can I help you, floozy-lover?" She said. I tried my best not to laugh at that.

"Someone sounds jealous." I said. She glared at me, and I pretended to glare back. Then she sighed. "Clare, there's nothing to be jealous of." I told her.

"Prove it." She said.

"I will tonight." Gee, doesn't this sound familiar? But I knew exactly what I was going to do tonight.

The day went by slow, after lunch. The periods went by one by one, and then finally, English class. We were all settled into the class, and were giving Ms. Dawes our undivided attention – Well, half of my attention. The other half was enjoying the smell of cocoa butter. You know what I'm talking about.

"Ok class, well today you're working on this writing assignment in pairs." Clare turned around with a smile, and I smiled back at her and nodded.

"_Assigned_ pairs." She said. I felt a part of me die a little. Clare turned around, her smile gone, along with mine.

"John and Lori, Ricky and Amy, Jason and Jack, Rose and Kyle, Clare and Liz, Eli and Jenna, Tori-" And the rest of the names I didn't hear, because my mind went blank after I found out I would be working with Jenna. Oh great. Jenna's seat was in front of Clare's, and she turned around to look at me. She smiled big to me, and I rolled my eyes at her. I think Clare saw that, because when I glanced at her I saw her smiling.

The class began to move around, sitting with their partners. Jenna came over and sat next to me.

"So… The assignment is to write about something you love to do, and then exchange the writings with your partner. I don't think much talking is involved in that." I said, as I starting writing about my love for writing poetry. It's how I get all my feelings out, and how I express myself.

"So, I'm supposed to write a whole paper about how I love to look at you?" She said. I looked up at her, with my best WTF face, as she twirled her hair.

"Well, I guess you could. But don't expect me to read it." I retorted. She looked as if her puppy had just died, and with that, I smirked, and then went back to writing. About 45 minutes later, we exchanged papers. She wrote about how she loved to cheerlead. Oh wow.

"Eli… This is amazing. I didn't know you were so… Deep." She said, as she looked from my paper to me.

"I didn't know you were so… I don't even know."

"So… Amazing?" She said. I held in my laugh.

"So… Annoying." I replied. Her jaw slightly dropped, as I handed her paper back to her, and she handed my paper back to me. The bell rang, and school was over for the day. Free at last, free at last. Weekend was finally here.

I walked out the door, and leaned against the wall next to the door as I waited for Clare. This was how it always was: whoever gets packed first waits for the other outside the door by the wall. Cheesy? Yes. Pointless? No. Walking home with her was always the greatest part of the school week. She went out the door, and then me and her hugged for a minute before beginning our walk home. We talked about what we wrote for our assignments, and how Jenna was trying to put the moves on me, and she was telling me how Liz was really nice. We got home, and then ate some chips while watching TV in the living room. Nobody was home, so we blasted the volume. It was Bugs Bunny- who wouldn't blast the volume for him?

We were watching cartoons and eating chips and laughing, before looking at the time. It was almost 8, and nobody was home yet. And we haven't started our homework.

"Clare, where are your parents?" I asked, turning the volume down.

"Mom's at a week-long business trip, and my dad is at a weekend-long business trip…" she said.

"They call it "business trips" these days?" I scoffed, as she looked down at the floor. Crap. I scooted over on the couch and wrapped my arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Clare. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's just the truth." she said, as we looked up into each others' eyes. I brushed a hair out of her eyes.

**Clare's POV**

A light bulb went off in my head as I remembered that I was going to show him something- to "prove" that he had nothing to be jealous of. I stood up from the couch, and walked over to the TV to turn it off. He gave me a perplexed look.

"Follow me." I said. I walked upstairs, Eli behind me, and we went to my room. I went to my drawer, and pulled out a paper, and handed it to him.

"I wrote a poem. You always talk about how much you love poetry, and so I tried writing you a poem about you… It's probably not that good…" I said, stopping my ramble. He studied the paper thoroughly. After a couple minutes, he looked up at me. Our eyes connected for a couple of seconds, before he handed the paper back to me and walked over to his book bag.

"Now it's time for _me_ to show _you_ there's nothing to be jealous of…" He said, pulling out a spiral notebook. He looked down at it, holding onto it for just a moment, before handing it to me.

"I have fifty poems written in there. Half of them of you." He said, walking away to sit on the bed. I heard him turn on the TV, as I walked over to the chair near the window. I sat down, and began to read his poetry.

It had been two hours. It took me two hours to read all his poems. I made sure I read each one thoroughly, sometimes reading one twice. I put the notebook on the table, and then looked out the window for a moment. I felt… I can't even describe how I felt. Some poems made me cry – being about his father beating him. A couple of poems were even about his suicide attempts. But the ones about me were a contrast to the others – they were so happy, but not so happy that they were shallow. All of his poems were… Deep. His poetry was outstanding.

I got up from the chair, and then layed next to him on the bed. He was already comfortable under the covers, but not asleep yet. I got comfortable, my head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me. This was the way we were almost every night.

"So… What did you think of my poetry?" He asked.

"I had no idea… I'm still… Wow." I said. I had no words. He has gone through hell and back.

"Everything's good now. I'm better with you." He said. I smiled into his chest, and closed my eyes. I drifted to sleep…

**Eli's POV**

I've never let anyone read my poetry before. Not. _Anyone_. I was so scared of what she might've thought about everything I wrote in there – Especially the poems about her. I felt so warm now, and everything felt so surreal. I turned off the TV, and then looked down at her. She was so beautiful while she slept. I pressed a long kiss to her head, and then disappeared into dream world.

**A/N: I'm expecting nice, long, reviews, haha! This was probably the longest chapter I've written for this story so far! =) Update coming possibly tomorrow! **


	9. Chapter 9: Good mornings & Kisses

**A/N: I am SO sorry it took me forever to update! School is back, and I've been really busy =/ Updates will now be made over the weekend! I'll try my best to update two or three times every weekend, to make up for the absence of updates in the week. Thanks so much for the reviews! They really do keep me writing. =) **

**Chapter 9!**

**Clare's POV. **

I was sleeping soundly until I started to feel my cover pull off of me slightly. I fluttered my eyes open, to see the back of a gray shirt. I was confused at first, just waking up, and then I moved my eyes slightly more up to see long-ish, black hair… Eli? He started moving again, turning to his other side, so that he was facing me. He was still sleeping! He had stayed! I smiled at that surprise. Something good came out of neither of my parents being home this weekend.

I examined him as he slept peacefully. He looked so… I can't even find the words to explain. The sunlight that streamed from my window outlined his face. He looked beautiful, to say the least. I couldn't control my hand as it gently stroked his cheek, and he flinched slightly. His eyes squeezed, and then slowly opened. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the light, before smiling at me.

"Good morning" he said, his voice raspy. He cleared his throat, before taking my hand from his face and kissing it softly. My cheeks warmed, as he stared at my hand for a moment, and then looked into my eyes.

"You know," he started, sitting up on his elbow, his voice still raspy. "I would love to wake up every morning like this… Waking up from a dream of you, feeling sad that it wasn't real, and then realizing that the real thing is right in front of me, awake. With the sunlight beaming at your eyes…" he paused for a moment, playing with my small fingers, "It's better than a dream could ever be." He then stroked my cheek with his thumb. He was such a romantic in the morning… Way better than the sarcastic Eli that took place when he was completely alert, and not still half asleep.

"Eli…" I said his name softly, not knowing what else to say. He smirked slightly.

"And the way you say my name… As if it were something forbidden." He practically mumbled. I smiled. Wow… I need to find a way for him to stay in the mornings. This definitely beats the notes. Sure, they were sweet. But hearing his voice, and the words he was saying, were irreplaceable.

"So… Do you want to hang out today?" I ask. This morning was the start of what could be an awesome day. He sits up, and then stretches before answering.

"Sure. It's not like I have anything better to do." He scoffed, as he rolled out of bed, picked out some clothes, and headed to the bathroom. I rolled my eyes. Note to self: Romantic, morning Eli only lasted 2 minutes. I chuckled to myself, before getting out of bed, and getting dressed. I wore a white tank top with a black cardigan, and a black, ruffled skirt that ended right above my knees to match. I was sliding on my white flip flops, as Eli stepped out of the bathroom wearing a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans. The usual. I was heading to the bathroom, before Eli stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked. I gave him a perplexed look.

"I need to do my hair and make-up." He laughed, and then rolled his eyes.

"That's going to take forever."

"15 minutes, tops!" I frowned. He blocked the bathroom door.

"You don't need to waste 10 minutes. You look perfect without wasting time on your hair or make-up." I began to blush, as he smiled at me and then pressed a kiss to my forehead. I went to the bathroom to take care of some "lady business" before we walked downstairs, and then out of the house.

"Where are we going?" I asked. We had already started walking. I was following him. It seems like he already had the destination in his head.

"You'll see." He replied, taking a hold of my hand. We held hands and made regular conversation about a TV show we saw the other day while walking to wherever he had in mind. It had been 20 minutes, until I recognized where we were: the park.

**Eli's POV. **

I took Clare to the park, wanting to spend the whole day with her there. I know living together is great, but she and I have never actually spent the _entire_ day with each other- From the time we woke up; to the time we fell asleep. I always wanted to know what it would be like, and today I was going to find out.

We sat with each other on the bench, and sat there in silence for what seemed like ten minutes. I was completely spaced out, until I heard sniffling and looked at her. She was… crying? Huh?

"Clare? What's wrong?" I asked hastily. Did I do something wrong? Did she miss her parents? What?

"Eli… Did you take me here to break up with me?" She managed to say through chronic sniffling. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow, what the _hell! _You think this is funny?" She exclaimed, standing up. I controlled my laughter, and then stood up too.

"You REALLY think I would waste my time bringing you here to break up with you? Actually, I take that back: WHY would I want to break up with you?" I told her, a smile glued to my face. Did she take wacko juice while in the bathroom or something?

"I don't know… I guess I just got a break-up vibe…"

"Well your break-up radar needs to be checked. Actually, you should just get rid of it all together, because you won't be needing it anytime soon." I told her, holding her face in my hands and wiping away tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. She looked up, and smiled at me. I then moved my hands down to her shoulders.

"I'm sorry… I guess I'm just feeling emotional today… It's my time of the month." My eyes widened, and my face went through a new shade of white.

"Clare… Some things I don't need to know." I said, as she began to laugh. A smile emerged on my face at that. Her laugh was then replaced by a goofy smile.

"What's up with the goofy smile?" I wondered.

"You always have the same smile every time I laugh." She told me matter-of-factly. I sighed… She had caught on.

"It's hard not to smile… At everything you do." I said. My heart skipped a beat, and Clare's eyes widened slightly.

"You're everything to me, Clare." I said softly. The moment felt so right, as a cool breeze went by, and Clare's hair flew easily with the wind. I moved her hair out of her face and then held her face in the palm of my hands. We moved our faces closer and closer together until our lips touched. It was a gentle, sweet, innocent type of kiss. I think I felt her heartbeat through her lips.

We then parted from each other, and gazed into each others' eyes. I couldn't help but smile, and neither could she. She then sat back down on the bench, and I sat next to her, smiles still on our faces like two kids that just went down the biggest slide at the park. I scooted closer to her, and she leaned on me. I held her in my arms as we stared at the clouds going by for what seemed like hours.

Actually, not seemed like- was. We got to the park at around 2:00 pm, and now it was 5. Wow.

Almost reading my mind, she starts to speak.

"So, we've been here a while… you want to go to my house or something?"

"Sure." I reply. We both stood up and drove to her house. On the way, she was fiddling with this necklace she had. It looked… _expensive._ Where did she get it from? Who gave it to her? Hm…

**A/N: Short. And a sucky cliffhanger, I know. But you'll see where the necklace plays a role in the next chapter, which I PROMISE will be MUCH longer. I'm sorry this is so short… I only had about 15 minutes a day from this whole week to work on it, because of school, and I feel like I haven't updated in forever. Look forward to updates this weekend! Leave reviews! =)**


	10. PLEASE READ!

**A/N: Okay, so I'm starting a new Eclare story, and it's going to be called "Abstract Vivacity." I've had a plot circling around in my head for a while now, and I can't contain it any longer=) This does NOT mean I am giving up "Never Say Never," but means I will be updating each story with one chapter every weekend. I think I'll have the first chapter to "Abstract Vivacity" tonight, so be on the look-out! It's going to be very different, and long. I'm really excited to start writing it(=**

**Please review it when it's posted! Thank you SO much to all my readers… I don't think I'd keep writing without your reviews and support! Love you all! Look forward to the new story! =D**


	11. Chapter 10: Bugs Bunny & Rain

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! Here's Chapter 10, and expect an update for my other story sometime tonight, too! =) **

**Eli's POV. **

We walked into her house, and shut the door behind us. It was slightly awkward, us just standing there, me still wondering where that necklace came from.

"So… Want to watch T.V. or someth-"

"I don't like T.V." I interrupted her, suddenly feeling angry. She looked at me, confused.

"We watch T.V. every night… How come you're telling me this now?" She asks.

"I don't know. Wanted to make you happy." I reply, taking a step closer to her.

"What happened?" She questions. I sighed, before replying.

"Who gave you that necklace?" I question her. She smirks, and then _laughs. _The anger in me starts to build up.

"Come on Clare, who?" I come close to yelling. She rolls her eyes, and then hugs me. I stay still.

"You get jealous _so_ easily," she pauses, as she looks me in the eyes. "I got this necklace from my mom, Eli." Wow. I feel like an ass.

"Oh…. Um…. Wow, I'm a… wow…"

"A total idiot?" She finishes for me. I laugh lightly.

"Yeah, that was the word I was looking for." I reply. She smiles.

"This necklace is one of those things that get passed down from generation to generation. It was my great-grandmothers, originally. My mom gave it to me a couple of years ago, but I didn't feel like wearing it when I first received it. I also lost it, and I found it again yesterday, and decided to start wearing it." I nodded my head, and smiled, remembering my mom gave me something to remember her by.

"My mom gave me a gold ring, before she left." I told her. I lifted up my hand to show her, and felt my heart skip beats as we both looked at my bare finger.

I run up the stairs, Clare following behind me, and look through my drawer where I also kept my jewelry. The ring was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit! I must have left it at my dad's house!" I yell, shutting the drawer angrily. I hastily start jogging down the stairs, Clare calling my name as she follows.

"Eli, you don't plan on going to your dad's to get it, do you?" She exclaims, worried.

"I have to get that ring back, Clare. It's all I have left of my mom." I say, my eyes starting to water. I put my hand on the door knob, and Clare presses her hand on the door.

"If your dad sees you, he will hurt you worse than before. He won't let you leave the house. At least wait until later tonight, Eli, while he's sleeping." She begged. I knew she was making sense. I then crash my lips onto hers, and kissed her passionately. She, obviously confused, breaks from the kiss. She takes a breath, before speaking again.

"What was that for?"

"For always being a voice of reason." I say, smiling. She smiles back at me, and a few seconds later, her smile drops.

"What's wrong?" I inquire, my smile fading.

"All this time, you haven't liked watching T.V. every night?" She asked. I half laughed, before replying.

"I have never really liked T.V. … But I like the tradition, and I like watching it with you. So, I guess I've grown to like T.V." Good, Eli, good. She smirks, before rolling her eyes and walking towards the couch.

"You're so cheesy I'm surprise people haven't used a grader on you yet." She said, before turning on the T.V. to Bugs Bunny. She rolls her eyes, as my mouth drops.

"BUGS BUNNY! I haven't seen this show in forever! It was the only one I liked!" I yell, jumping onto the couch and grabbing the remote from her.

**Clare's POV.**

"BUGS BUNNY! I haven't seen this show in forever! It was the only one I liked!" Eli exclaims, jumping onto the couch and snatching the remote from my hands. Ugh.

"I hate this show! The character of Bugs Bunny is ridiculous!" I say, as Eli gasps.

"_You're_ ridiculous!" he retorts. My eyebrows raise, as I try to glare at him. It's hard to do that, when his undivided attention is on a retarded rabbit.

We sit in silence - well, besides Eli laughing at the show every minute - throughout the entire show. At the end, Eli looks at me, and I glare at him.

"So… What's up, Doc?" Eli says, impersonating Bugs. I try my best not to laugh at how stupid he sounded, but I couldn't hold it in. I start laughing, as Eli starts smiling, and we then change the channel to a movie. It was a black and white movie, and neither one of us were paying any attention, obviously. We both kept glancing at each other throughout the whole movie. I guess when you really like someone, you can't keep your eyes off of them for more than a minute.

We sat there, watching movie after movie, and I then looked up at the time. It was almost 10:30 pm. I look back at the T.V., hoping Eli wasn't looking at me while I glanced at the clock.

"Clare, my dad is sleeping by this time…" He said. Darn.

"Eli…" I start, standing up. Eli stands up too, turning off the T.V. with the remote. "I just don't want you to get hurt over there."

"I know… I won't, Clare. Don't worry about me." He presses a soft kiss on my head, and then looks deep into my eyes. He nods slightly, and walks out the door to his dad's house.

God, let him come back okay... Let him come back, _at all. _

**Eli's POV. **

I approach the door of my dad's house. As I bring my hand up to the door knob, I see a drop of sweat fall from my finger tip.

Every bone in my body was shaking. If he saw me, I had no idea what would happen. Maybe he didn't even know I was gone? Oh, who am I kidding. It's been five months… God, don't let my dad see me. Not this time. Please...

I try opening the door knob, a part of me hoping it was locked, and to my surprise, it opened easily. Dad never cared about locking the door. He was usually too drunk to remember to lock it. I stepped inside the house, and hear absolute silence. An eerie silence.

I hurriedly went up to my room, and looked around quietly. If I made any noise, I knew I'd be screwed. I went through my empty drawers, and found nothing. My eyes were beginning to water in doubt that I would find the ring, and I began to cry. I let a soft sob escape my lips, and I prayed it wasn't too loud.

I've cried too many times in this house for my dad not to recognize the sound.

I look down around the floor. I lift the rug off the ground, and hear something drop. Feeling my heart lift, I toss the rug to the side softly, and see something shining on the ground. I pick it up, and inspect it. It was my mom's ring. I grin to myself in relief, and slide it onto my finger. I leave my room, not caring that it was slightly different than the way it was before, and walk down the stairs.

I hear a cough in the kitchen. I freeze. My heart beats like a bomb. Sweat trickles down from my forehead to my cheek, as my eyes are affixed on the door.

It's only a few feet away. Only a _few feet_. All I have to do is not make a single sound, which is nearly impossible to do while I feel my breathing get heavy.

I take a little footstep forward and hear the floor crack, as if this were an old, haunted house. I curse in my head, as my heart quickens. I hear a chair move in the kitchen.

"_Who's there?" _I hear the familiar, rough voice of my father.

I'm frozen. I hear footsteps approaching, and in my head I am running out the door and hauling ass down the sidewalk. But instead, I am standing there like ice.

Taking a deep breath and gathering all the energy I have left in me, I bolt to the door. I try opening it, but the sweat on the palm of my hand made it impossible to turn the knob.

"ELI?" My dad barks, his voice enraged. A sob escapes my lips, and my head starts to ache with all the tension building up in the room as I hear his footsteps quicken and get closer. I feel the worst type of vulnerability as I can't get it in me to open the door.

My sight starting to become a blur, it sharpens as my dad clutches my arms tightly, and throws me at the door. My back feels a familiar hurting, and my heart sinks more and more every second knowing that my chances of getting out of here unscathed are over.

I feel his tight fists hit my stomach over and over again, just like he use to. I wept loudly as he threw me to the ground, my head breaking the fall.

"HOW _DARE_ YOU LEAVE ME! HOW _DARE_ YOU LEAVE FOR FIVE MONTHS! WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU!" He shouted, three to four words leaving his mouth after every time he kicked the side of my rib cage and stomach. I yelp out begging him to stop, begging him to leave me alone, begging him to let me go, but it's pathetic.

After what seemed like hours of pain, he stops when he becomes too tired to continue. Obviously drunk, he stumbles up the stairs to his room. I hear his door slam loudly, and I get up hastily and leave the house.

As I walk back to Clare's house, I'm thinking about practically nothing as the rain beats down on me softly. There's also a cool breeze that comes along every few seconds. It feels good, slightly healing me along with the rain washing any blood on me.

I get to Clare's house, and open the door. I hear the door of her room open, and in a few seconds, see her running down the stairs. She then looks up at me, and her jaw drops in horror.

"Eli, what happened to you?" she cries, running up to me and gently running her fingers through my wet hair. Her fingers go over the bruise I got from hitting the ground, and I cringe in pain. She pulls her hand away slowly, and begins to sob. I feel my heart sink lower than I thought was possible at that moment.

"My… H-he saw me." I say, barely being able to speak. She takes my hand, and walks up the stairs slowly with me, my legs hurting with every step.

When we finally make it to her room, she directs me to lay on her bed. I give her a questioning look, not wanting to soak her bed, but her eyes tell me that's the least of her worries right now. I lay on her bed, as she paces back and forth in front of me.

"It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." I lie. I was in throbbing pain in my stomach, but I couldn't let her know that. She looks into my eyes, as if she were reading my soul. She then comes closer to me.

"Take off your shirt." She utters. I remain silent and still.

"TAKE IT OFF!" She begins to yell.

"Clare, at least wait for the second date." I try ignoring the demand with a joke.

"Eli, I'm not playing around here! Take it off, now!" I stand up, and stayed still in front of her. I couldn't bring myself to take it off. She walked up to me slowly, her hands taking hold of the bottom of my shirt.

"I'll do this for you." She said, her voice breaking. I know she was scared of what she would see. She closed her eyes, and lifted my shirt over my head. It fell to the ground, and she then opened her eyes to my stomach. She gasped, and her eyes widened.

She saw all the past bruising, and all the bruising that had happened tonight. There were some cuts in there, from the ripping of my skin against his fingernails as he punched me numerous times, and some of the cuts were slightly bleeding. She began to gasp at sobs, as she stood there staring at my stomach. I ignored the pain, and wrapped my arms around her, and held her. She cried into my bare shoulder, and she rubbed her soft hands on my upper back. I began to cry softly, too.

After several minutes of comforting, we parted from each other.

"I'm going to go get some ice." Clare whispered, as she walked away from me to the door. She left, and I stood up there for about a minute. Suddenly, the lights flickered off. I then begin to hear the harsh rain, and thunder. I stare out the window, until I see a light in the corner of my eye.

Clare walks into the room with a lit candle and some ice.

"The power's out." She tells me.

"Really?" I scoff. She rolls her eyes, obviously not in the mood for my joking around.

She pulls me by my hand over to the bed, and lays me down. She wraps some ice in a cold, wet, towel, and gently presses it over a cut on my stomach. I gasp sharply at how cold it was, but then calm down when my body adjusts to it.

As she presses the ice in different areas of my stomach and chest every few minutes, overtime my body no longer gets surprised at the coldness. My stomach doesn't hurt nearly as badly as it did before, and I only have the cold ice and Clare's caring to thank for that.

I look up at Clare's face, for the first time ever since she started to ice my stomach, and feel my heart skip a beat. The candle light hit her face at just the right angle, and her eyes looked beautiful, although were layered with worry.

"I'm going to be fine, Clare." I assured her. She looked into my eyes, and the worry in her eyes began to simmer down when she saw I was nothing but honest.

"I know… I just hate seeing you like this." She confesses, laying the ice on my forehead. She gently traces my stomach with her bare fingertips, as if she were healing them by the very touch. I take her fingertips in my hand, and place them to my mouth. I kiss them gently, before laying them on my chest.

I wanted nothing more than to kiss her lips right there. I disregard the pain, and sat up, so that she and I were face to face. I looked from her eyes to her lips, and she did the same to me. Our lips collided in unison, and we both began to feel heated with passion. Our tongues began to dance, and I ran my fingers through her hair as our kissing got deeper.

"CLARE!" We both nearly jump out of our skins as we hear the yell of her dad's voice.

Oh damn.

**A/N: I hope this chapter makes up the absence of chapters for this week, and the sucky chapter from last week(= CLIFFHANGER! XD! Look forward to Chapter 11 next weekend! And expect Abstract Vivacity to be updated tomorrow! =) **


	12. Chapter 11: Questions & Heartache

**A/N: How long has it been since an update? TOO LONG! So sorry for the wait you guys! I've been soooo busy! But now that I think I have all my priorities straight, I'll be able to update my stories the way I've been wanting to: Both stories get updated once each every weekend. Again, I'm sorry for the wait. I hope I haven't lost you amazing readers=( Here's Chapter 11!**

**Eli's POV. **

This didn't look good… Who am I kidding. Her dad would've been happier to have walked in on Jesus and Satan.

Here we were - dark room, lit candles, cool ice, laying on a bed, my shirt on the floor. And to add to it, we were making out. How am I suppose to tell her dad that the power went out, and my dad beat me up so Clare was nursing me back to health?

I felt the tension in the room immediately thicken, as the veins began to pop out of Clare's father's neck.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" Yelled her dad, as he grabbed Clare by her arm and yanked her away from me. She fell to the floor - face first - when her dad's tight grip let go, and I felt fury burst energy inside me as I stood up from the bed and approached her father. Without thinking, I decked her father in the face - hard. He groaned in pain at the punch, but I knew that would only prevent him from hurting me for a few more seconds. So, I took a low blow. I kneed him in the nards, and he nearly went to the floor gasping for air. Clare was already starting to stand up, and I took her hand in mine as I began to ran out of there. We ran down the flight of stairs together, and then ran out of the house.

A taxi went by, and I yelled out to it. It stopped, and Clare and I got into the car.

"1447 Deer Lake Drive" The man started driving us to our destination, my house. From there we would get in my hearse and go to the park. We had to get away from all of this.

I took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Everything happened all at once. I turned to look at Clare, and she was weeping as quietly as she could. It actually looked painful how hard she was trying to hold it in. I tapped on the man's shoulder, and he knew to drive a little over the speed limit. My house wasn't that far away from the park. Clare could let it out there. As Clare continued to weep, I looked away, knowing she didn't want me to see her like this.

After about five more minutes, we got to my house. I gave the man $15, and Clare and I exited the car. We went straight to my hearse, and got inside it quickly. I turned on the ignition, backed out of the driveway as fast as I could, and drove. I prayed silently to God that my dad didn't hear it, which I don't think he did. He's the heaviest sleeper I've ever met.

The drive wasn't long, considering not many cars were out this late. When we finally got to the park, Clare and I jumped out of the car. I walked over to the pond, and sat by it. This park never looked better than it did at night. The moonlight's reflection blanketed over the water perfectly. Clare walked over, and sat down next to me. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and was slightly rocking back and forth.

"Clare?" I asked worriedly, hoping she would be responsive.

"I can't believe all that just happened." She practically whispered. I scooted over to her, so that my side was touching hers. I slowly wrapped my arm around her, so that if she didn't want me to she could just shake her head. She didn't move. My hand rested on the side of her stomach.

"It's over now… We're both okay." She chuckled, and then looked me up and down.

"Do you have memory problems?"

"I'm fine." I lied. My stomach began to throb. I didn't feel any pain until she mentioned it. I guess when you care for someone more than yourself, their pain replaces yours.

"Uh-huh." Clare replied. She could always see right through me.

An idea popped in my head, and I stood up.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." I walked over to the edge of the park where I parked my hearse, and got in it. I drove in reverse, and parked it, so that the back of Morty was facing the pond. I got out, and opened the back of the car.

"This is our sleeping headquarters for tonight." I told her, as I began to lay out blankets and pillows in the back of my car. I always kept sleeping supplies in there, just in case it got too bad in my house. I guess I forgot to take it out when I started living with Clare.

"Um, what if I don't want to sleep in the back of a hearse?" Clare scoffed.

"Then I guess the ladybugs and ants will make room for you on the grass." I laughed. She smiled, for the first time I saw in hours. I got into the back of Morty, and lied down so that I was lying on my stomach toward the pond. A sharp pain evolved, and I quickly flipped myself over so that I was on my back. I guess I'll have to look at the ceiling.

Clare reluctantly got in, and laid the way I originally was going to. But instead of looking at the pond, she was looking at me. She propped herself up on her forearm, and her hand went to my stomach. She started to rub it gently, and I couldn't help but smile at her, acting all motherly. I then looked more at her face, and noticed a bruise on her cheek from the fall. I took the hand that was rubbing my stomach in mine, stopping it, while I kissed her cheek gently. I saw her blush lightly, and I smiled to myself. I still had it.

"All better" she smiled, as she took her hand out of mine and positioned herself differently. She was sitting, her back again the side of the car, and her legs Indian style.

"Why are you sitting?" I asked. I figured she would be exhausted after today.

"I just felt like talking. Sit." She demanded. I groaned, as I moved myself so that I was sitting Indian style, with my back against the other side of the car, so that we would be opposite of each other.

"So… What do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"We can ask each other questions." She replied.

"You first." She rolled her eyes, and then smiled, and then her smile faded. A contemplating look graced her face, as she was deep in thought.

"Ok, say this new chick comes to Degrassi. Enthusiastic, pretty, and has a lot in common with you… Would you get bored of me, and leave me for her?" She asked. I chortled, before responding.

"You mean pull a KC? Hell no. There couldn't be a more prettier and enthusiastic girl than you, anyway." I assured her. Her smile stretched miles across her face, as she turned through shades of red.

"Your turn." She said. I thought for a moment, and thought of something.

"What's the furthest you've ever gone with a guy?" I wondered. She smiled in embarrassment, before replying.

"Giving Wesley a hickey, and making out with him at a party during "7 minutes in heaven." Wasn't my best night..." I felt something run through me, as my mouth dropped and eyes widened. I didn't know if it was jealousy, surprise, or the thought that I have been kissing what had… Wesley…. Ew… Oh my God. Clare began to laugh at the expressions I didn't even know I had on my face.

"This is not a laughing matter! It's disgusting!"

"You asked! What's the furthest you've ever gone with a girl?" As a flashback came to me, I began to laugh. She gave me a face saying "what?" and I told her.

"Ok, I was at a party, and there was this one nerdy girl that was all alone in the corner of the room. Pig tails, scrawny, thick glasses, ten times more nerdier than you ever were." She glared at me, and I chuckled before continuing. "Well I felt bad for her, ya know, and I went over there and spent time with her. The more time I spent with her, the more I considered killing myself in the bathroom just to get away from her." I paused, letting Clare burst out in laughter. "Anyway, I knew I couldn't just ditch her, so I told her I had to go to the bathroom for a moment. Instead, I went to the fridge and found some alcohol… I drank… A lot…. And then went back to hanging out with her. I don't really remember the rest, but the next day my friend was telling me how she and I made out for hours on the couch…" Clare looked at me, disgusted, and I think she felt the same thing I felt a few minutes ago. It wasn't too long before we both started laughing at how we both had bad experiences at parties.

"Ok, so it's my turn… Am I the only guy that has ever slept over at your house?" I speculated. I was scared to know the answer, knowing I would feel insecure, jealous, and a little angry if I wasn't the first guy to spend the night there.

"Yes… I don't even think I've let any other guy into my room before. Let alone live in there." I smiled, in relief and awe. It's a good feeling to feel special.

"So… Am I the only girl you've ever spent the night with?"

"Yup… And the only person I've ever had a sleepover with, too." She smiled, and probably felt the same special feeling that I did.

It got quiet, as we both turned to look at the pond. I marveled it for a moment, and thought of something to ask Clare.

"Do you believe in love?" I asked her. I saw her face drop a little, before answering.

"Uh… I… Do you?" I smiled, hoping she would ask me that.

"It's hard not to…" I unintentionally paused, feeling my heart quicken, "when I'm with you…" I looked from the pond to her, and she looked confused. I'll give her an explanation.

"Clare, I care for you more than anything else in the world. More than any family I have, and more than myself. When I look at you, my heart skips beats. And when I hold you, one of the thoughts that pass through my mind is that I'm the most fortunate guy in the world… And that's all because," I paused, taking her hands in mine, "I love you." I took a breath, almost forgetting how to breathe, and examined her face carefully. She looked down to our hands, and then looked at the pond.

"I think it's time we get some sleep…" My heart dropped into what felt like a deep, black hole. I said nothing as we got comfortable under the covers, with our backs turned to each other. I actually felt my eyes begin to get heavy, and my throat close up. I don't remember the last time I cried because of someone. Yeah, with my dad beating me. That was physical. I cried to Clare when I was saying awful things and hurting her when I was in the hospital, but that was because I was hurting her. I don't ever remember crying because someone hurt me, besides my mom.

I heard that love hurt at times. I heard that the pain is worth the happiness, and that it actually isn't that bad. But I guess that's only when the love is mutual. And with that, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

**A/N: Draaammmaaa! Just remember: It gets worse before it gets better. And I have plans for it to get better! Next update is next week! =) But if I get tons of feedback, I may do it earlier=P Haha. I LOVVVVE feedback! And all of you! (= **


	13. Author's Apology! Please Read!

**A/N:** Hey guys, I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for the lack of updating. I recently went to the hospital for an infected sweat gland, and I'm still recovering from surgery and everything. I've also been distracted with school work, and bringing my grades up. And video-making has been taking priority over writing, and I'm sorry. And it's going to change. Expect updates soon, and I promise if BOTH stories aren't updated tonight, they both will be by next weekend. I'm really sorry, and I hope I haven't lost too many readers. =(


	14. Chapter 12: Reflections & Beginnings

**A/N: Guess who's back... back again... Aubrey's back... Tell a friend;D **

**Lol, I'm out of my writer's block for this story(= For those of you who have held onto this story, I promise not to leave you hanging anymore. Updates will range every few days, not every couple of months. And I truly mean that this time. I really love you guys. =') But if I don't get more than a couple of reviews on this new chapter within the next couple of days, I'm just going to assume I lost too many readers to continue. So PLEASE REVIEW, I need to know if I should keep writing this now that I can actually write updates properly, or drop this story. **

**Okay, this is kindof short, just a filler. But again: PLEASE REVIEW! **

**Chapter 12!**

**Eli's POV. **

I don't know what hurt worse at the moment; waking up cold as hell, for the bruises on my stomach had endured the coldness of the night (my shirt was still on the floor of Clare's room), or the fact that I had to wake up to the woman who didn't reciprocate the love I had for her.

I really opened up to Clare last night. I told her I _loved_ her. Do you know how long I've been waiting to tell her that? Ever since the first night I slept over at her house and we watched Titanic, I knew I loved her.

I still can't believe she didn't say it back to me.

Maybe I shouldn't be mad at her... I know she cares for me, but maybe she loves slowly...

Or maybe she doesn't love at all? She never did answer if she believed in love or not.

And with that thought, Her eyes began to flutter open to a strong wind that went by.

**Clare's POV.**

I woke up, absorbing my surroundings and all that had happened within the last 24 hours: Waking up to Eli yesterday morning. Our first kiss. And then it started going down hill when he left to retrieve his mothers' ring from his old house.

He came back _broken_. I took him up to my room, and I had seen his stomach for the first time. When I first learned that his dad abused him, he told me that he always aimed for the stomach. But I never imagined it to look so... _lurid_.

We got caught up in the moment of passion when I was healing him. The power had gone out, and we were in my room, on my bed, me icing his stomach with the light of the candles illuminating his face. We were both hurt, although Eli was hurt both on the inside and outside, and kissing just seemed like it could be a cure at that moment for the both of us.

We weren't going any further. We would've probably stopped within the next couple of minutes. But my father _had_ to come home at the _worst_ possible time.

I can't believe he pushed me to the floor. I knew what Eli's reaction was going to be, even in his condition. I was prepared to run out of the house with him as soon as my dad had dropped to the floor.

I cried in the car on the way to the park, although I suppressed my sobs. It was all so unreal. After a few minutes of being in company of Eli and the soothing water of the park, I began to feel better. Eli and I got settled in the back of his hearse, and when he and I just talked, I felt like things were getting better; like there was a light shining through the crack of his broken life.

But then he said he loved me.

When he said those three words, those three simple words that hold so much value, the first thing I felt was my heart connect with his.

_I love him._

I loved him, too. I really do. But if I say it, I'm scared we'll end up like my parents; cheating on each other, hating each other, and starting to take that hatred out on our kids.

I saw the hurt in Eli's eyes when I ignored his confession and suggested we just go to sleep. And believe me, it _killed_ me. But I know that the hurt he and I are feeling now would be nothing compared to the hurt and pain we would feel later if we stayed together.

After spending a lot of time thinking last night, I decided that I am going to slowly break things off with Eli. Once he's healed, I will begin to distance myself. I'll spend less time with him, less time at hom-

Wait... Do I even have a home anymore?

I then thought about what I have left. I can't possibly go back home after that night.

I have nothing. Nothing but Eli's love. Why should I deteriorate the only thing I have left?

"Hi." Eli said softly, breaking my contrasting thoughts on what to do.

"Hey." I replied. We sat there in silence.

"So... About what I said last night..." Eli brought up. I sighed. He didn't waste time, did he?

"Yeah... Listen, I'm-"

"I'm sorry." Eli interrupted. Huh?

"What do you mean _your_ sorry?" I asked.

"I shouldn't have said I loved you. We've visited heaven and hell all within 24 hours, and I guess the adrenaline of it all got to me. I _do_ love you. I know I do. I have for a while now, but I'll wait until everything settles down to remind you through words again." He stroked my cheek as he spoke, and I closed my eyes so I could sink in what he was saying.

I can't break things off with him. That stupid idea was now out of the question. He was the most thoughtful, most loving guy I've ever encountered, and I am not going to be an idiot that lets him go.

Who says that we will end up like my parents? Eli was nothing like my dad, and I can only pray that I won't be like my mom. Maybe we'll be like them. Or maybe we'll end up happier than people end up in fairy tales.

All I know is that I don't have a chance of a great ending with Eli if I don't let myself put my heart on the line.

"Eli, don't be sorry." I started, taking his hand in mine. "I love you, too."

His eyes altered to the softest green I've ever seen them, as a kid-like smile appeared on his face. My smile emerged on my face from my heart, as I planted my lips on his softly.

I'm ready to move forward with the only thing I had left.

**A/N: REVIEWSREVIEWSREVIEWS! I have ideas in mind, but like I said in the beginning: if not many people are still interested in this story, I think I'm just going to drop it. So PLEASE let me know you're still interested=)**


	15. Chapter 13: Laughter & Future Planning

**A/N: PLEASE READ!**

**Dudes...**

**You have every right to call me an asshole. To call me a blubber nugget. To call me your grandma's hoe. To call me your soggy sock. Anything bad, nasty, or disturbing that you can think of. I'm so sorry for being all like "WOOHOO! I'M BACK BITCHES! =D" & then not updating for months again. I probably scared you, because I said that if I didn't see much feedback, I would drop this story. _THIS STORY IS NOT BEING DROPPED._ & I'm sorry if I made you think it was. My only excuse is that I've been very busy with school and such, and haven't had much time for stories. **

**But I'm updating now! (= & I don't know when I will again, but I'll make sure it doesn't surpass 2 months+, kay? **

**On a slightly off-topic note: How amazing was Munro last night? (no, no, you dirty minds, not in your sheets;D but on last night's episode!) He had me in tears during the hearse scene. **

**Now enough babbling... **

**Chapter 13! **

**Eli's POV. **

Clare just told me she loved me.

I don't remember what it feels like to be loved by someone that isn't related to you, because I never have been.

Until now.

I felt a new light shine within me, beaming out through my eyes, through my chest, shining out from the source of my soul. And I knew she could tell.

Everything was quiet. Verbal words weren't needed. Her eyes played the role of her mouth at that moment, speaking her love for me through blue light.

She then stopped speaking to me, closing her eye lids shut as she sat up in the hearse, leaning against the back of the front seats. Forgetting my pulp condition, I attempted sitting up too, but then felt a sharp pain emerge in my stomach. Clare's eyes shot open, as she put her hand on my bare shoulder and gently laid me back down.

"I wanna get up." I groaned. I didn't feel like laying down anymore.

"You have to rest up, Eli. You're going to hurt yourself." She mothered me. I rolled my eyes, and attempted sitting up again, this time holding in my pain. I successfully moved myself so that I was sitting down next to her, my back leaning against the front seats too. Clare glared and shook her head at me, as I smirked at her.

"You're unbelievable, Goldsworthy." She said, smiling. I laughed, nodding my head.

"I know." She rolled her eyes – a trait she picked up from yours truly – and stared forward at the water. We were quiet, only until I disrupted it.

"So, how exactly are you gonna support me? You're homeless, which makes me homeless. You're poor, which makes me poor. And you have no food, which makes me hungry." I said to her, trying to keep a serious face. Clare's jaw dropped slightly, as her eyes formed into a glare once again.

"How am _I_ going to support _you? _Since when did I start wearing the pants in this relationship?" She joked back.

"I don't remember you ever taking them off." I replied, laughing. Clare started laughing as she swatted my arm.

"Ouch! I'm tender, remember?" I told her, faking pain.

"Aw, you poor baby. Get over it." She said coldly, as she jumped out of the hearse. I smirked to myself. _That's my woman._ I held in my pain, and slowly got out of Morty. I then walked over to Clare, who was standing on the side of the pond.

"But really... What are we going to do?" Clare asked me, her tone only serious. I knew _I_ had to support us... But I don't know how. We have no jobs, barely any money, no food-

"I can ask for a part-time job at the hospital, to replace the volunteering hours. And maybe you could get a part-time job at the library? We could spend the money we do have right now on a cheap motel, until we save enough money for an apartment, and then-" I unintentionally interrupted Clare with my laughter, as her face transformed to a look of confusion.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"It's just... You're cute, thinking all this through and planning our future."

"Do you think it's stupid of me to plan that far ahead?" She asked me, her voice sounding hurt. I smiled, and took a hold of her hand.

"Not at all. I love you, and you love me. I have just as much faith in our future as you do." I told her. She smiled, and I could feel her body relax through her hand. I pecked her lips, and she rested her head on my shoulder softly.

"So what do you think? Do you like the idea of working at a library? I know it's not the most glorious job, but I know how you just _love_ to read your comics." She scoffed, wrapping her arms around my waist gently.

"Eh, as long as it pays our bills." I laughed.

"Doesn't it feel like we're acting like a married couple?" She laughed with me.

"Minus the sex, yeah." I faked a sigh. Clare's laughing became slightly forced, until she stopped laughing altogether.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's just... Does it bother you?" She asked me. I gave her a questioning look. She sighed. "Does it bother you that we don't... you know..." She explained slightly further._ Oh. _

"No, not at all. That's not the reason I'm with you, Clare. I mean sure, you're sexy, and it's not like I don't ever think about it... Because, as you obviously know, I'm a guy." I paused, letting us laugh. "But you'll be ready when the timing is right. And I'll be waiting with you until then." I smiled at her. She genuinely smiled back at me, and kissed my lips briefly.

We spent the rest of the day planning and planning. I know some people that work at the Motel 6 down the street from the hospital Clare will be working at, and I might be able to get them to let us rent a motel with monthly pay. It would be like our little home, until we can afford an actual apartment. We're going to stay in school, and try not to fall behind. And we're going to _always_ be **honest with each other.**

**A/N: Ohhh, foreshadowing? ;) **

**I know this chapter may have sucked, but I needed to update. Please give me some feedback! =) **


	16. MUST READ

**Please don't hate me...**

**But... **

**I have to end this story...**

**JUST KIDDING YALL=) This story ain't over. Lol, but really, don't hate me for this being just an author's note...**

**I just felt like I needed to communicate with you guys, especially after tonight's episode=( Goodness, I've been crying on-and-off for hours now. I'm so angry that Clare just ABANDONED Eli when he needed her the most, and not only that, but I guess her good-hearted, caring, soul led her to the fucking dance. Because she felt like fucking dancing after breaking the heart of someone she said she LOVED. Someone she promised she would always be there for. JFDSFJLK;DSJAGRRRRRRAAAAHHHH! **

**Please don't hate me or stop reading my stories because of the way I feel right now... I loved EClare, and I always will. & I will always have faith in them. I hope you all do, too. **

**Now with my stories: I think I'm done with Until We Bleed... It was just a temporary idea in my head, lmao. It's not like there were characters you actually cared for in there, anyway; Fitz and an OC. Your hearts won't be ripped too much, I hope... **

**Never Say Never: I'm going to continue it, but I'm just in a major brain-fart right now. I can't think of anything. IF YOU CAN HELP ME, PLEASE MESSAGE ME WITH IDEAS! **

**Abstract Vivacity: Expect and update SOON. Maybe not tonight, but definitely _SOON_. (= **

**And I'm also working on a new story, LMAO. The first chapter is already written, just not uploaded. I think I want to write the entire story, first, and THEN start uploading chapters in an organized fashion. Or at least write some of the first chapters before I start posting it... sound good? If you want a preview, here's the summary for it:**

"_Elijah Goldsworthy; from the young age of seven-years-old, is already going through an experience that will haunt him forever. Someone who he will always see as a monster, he must refer to as a person that he should look up to.  
Clare Edwards; six-years-old, and her life is what a stranger would call perfect. She becomes the tadpole of light swimming in Elijah's lake of darkness. Could trying to help a friend through the years cost her life in the end?"_

**=) I love you all so much. Please leave feedback on your thoughts of tonight's episode, what you think of this story, how has your week been, and/or if you are excited for the upcoming story! **


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